Far-right Baudet calls reports of his racist texts "hot air"

FvD leader Thierry Baudet called reports of racist texts sent by him and other FvD candidates "hot air" and wouldn't confirm nor deny that the texts were real. "Either it is true, or it is not true, or it has been forged. I don't even know, I'm not even going to check," he said, ANP reports.

On Tuesday, Weekblad EW - previously Elsevier - published screenshots from FvD WhatsApp groups containing racists texts sent by Baudet and other members of his far-right party.

In one group, Baudet messaged: "Do you want your sister to come home with a negro?" He also wrote about how whites have a higher IQ than Latino- and African people: "100 is the AVERAGE. So caucasian 110, hispanic 90, african 75 or something like that," he wrote, according to the Elsevier screenshots.

Andreas Bakir, FvD Member of States and number 17 on the parties election candidate list, texted: "I don't hate negroes, they don't all have to be dead or something. I do have a preference, or is that not allowed anymore? I am not bothered by the negroes in Africa as long as they stay there."

Baudet refused to confirm or deny that those messages were sent by him and members of his party. "There is such a thing as a private space. Not accepting the distinction between private and public is part of a totalitarian regime," he said, according to ANP.

The far-right politician said that journalists are letting themselves be used by the "cartel game" to portray FvD in a "very unpleasant light". "The Dutch can see right through this," Baudet said.

According to him, people should look at his public statements to find out what his ideas are. Perhaps he made a joke or comment in private, Baudet said, "and I would like to say: Who has not done that? He who is without sin cast the first stone."

This is the second time in a few months that discriminatory messages sent in WhatsApp groups got the FvD in the headlines. Late last year, anti-Semitic and homophobic messages sent by members of the party's youth division JFvD resulted in Baudet stepping down as party leader, then announcing that he would run for party leader again. The commotion that followed prompted an exodus from the party.

When the FvD released its list of candidates for the upcoming parliamentary election, Baudet retained his number one spot on the list