Jewish groups file new legal case against far right leader Baudet

The Center for Information and Documentation on Israel (CIDI) and the Central Jewish Consultation filed summary proceedings against Thierry Baudet. They ask the court in Amsterdam to declare statements by the Forum voor Democratie (FvD) leader in which he compares the Cabinet's coronavirus measures with the Holocaust unlawful. The lawsuit, which is supported by four Jewish survivors of World War II, will appear in court next week Wednesday.

Baudet made these statements on a number of occasions in November via social media. Among other things, he said that unvaccinated people "are the new Jews and the looking-away excluders are the new Nazis and NSB members." In doing so, he downplays the Holocaust, according to the two organizations. The fact that Baudet put two photos side by side, one showing a child that can't go to a Sinterklaas party and the other a child with a Star of David awaiting deportation, is an abomination in the organizations' eyes.

Baudet made the statements in response to Maurice de Hond. The pollster had expressed concern about the Cabinet's proposal to only allow vaccinated people and people who recently recovered from a coronavirus infection to enter certain locations. De Hond himself also made a comparison with the situation of his Jewish parents. At a certain point, they were no longer allowed to visit certain places they frequented, such as cinemas and restaurants, and found it strange that others continued to do so.

The Central Jewish Consultation and CIDI call the statements seriously insulting and unnecessarily hurtful to the murdered victims of the Holocaust, the survivors, and their relatives. They demand, by order of a penalty of 25,000 euros per day, that Baudet remove the statements from his social media platforms. They also want him to no longer use images of the Holocaust in the context of the coronavirus debate.

CIDI director Hanna Luden said last month that Baudet is contributing to the denial of history with these kinds of statements. She called that very bad "because young people take what he says as true and do not realize that he is speaking nonsense."