Award for best Dutch book scrapped after MP's emails were used to vote for Baudet book

The NS Publieksprijs, a prize annually awarded for the best Dutch book of the year as voted by the public, will not be awarded this year. Voting has been “manipulated on a large scale.” As a result, it has become “impossible to secure a fair vote,” the Foundation Collective Propaganda of the Dutch Book (CPNB) announced.

CPNB suspended the vote for several hours this weekend after receiving complaints from parliamentarians claiming that their email addresses had been used to vote for Het Coronabedrog, a book by FvD leader Thierry Baudet. The CPNB confirmed that it found “irregularities” and built in an additional verification step. But that did not help enough to achieve a fair vote.

“Obviously, the CPNB did not come to this decision lightly. The NS Publieksprijs fits in seamlessly with the Foundation’s objective: bringing Dutch books to people’s attention and stimulating reading. It is sad that the discovered manipulation now makes us fall short of this objective,” the Foundation said.

The main sponsor, NS, is also “disappointed about this outcome.” “Participants benefit from fair elections and therefore also from a justified winner. Now that the CPNB cannot guarantee that this year, we think it’s right that the elections are ended early.”

Like every year, six books were nominated for the NS Publieksprijs. This year the nominees were Amalia by Claudia de Breij, De heks van Limbricht by Susan Smit, De Nachtdienst by Esther Verhoef, Dwaalspoor by Suzanne Vermeer, Fortuna's kinderen by Annejet van der Zijl, and Master Your Mindset by Michael Pilarczyk. Voters can also enter a free choice every year.

The prize money associated with the NS Publieksprijs, 7,500 euros, will be divided among the six nominees. All six authors will also receive an annual ticket from NS.