“Racism, anti-Semitism, misogyny, homophobia”: Former FvD workers describe leader Baudet

Former employees of FvD described the atmosphere at the far-right party as toxic, intimidating, and unsafe. According to them, party leader Thierry Baudet regularly confronted them with racism, anti-Semitism, misogyny, and homophobia. “That literally destroyed me as a human being,” one former employee told AD.

The newspaper spoke to fourteen former FvD members, three other involved people, and studied several hundred pages of correspondence, including emails, diary entries, and text messages. It got the image of a work environment where people who criticized the party received massive fines, people received unsolicited porn, and employees regularly suffered harassment.

According to former FvD employees, no one ever dared to tell Buadet that he was going too far. He’s a very unpredictable boss to work under. “One moment, you are fantastic, and Thierry is manic with joy and looks at everything through rose-colored glasses,” said one person involved. “And the other moment it sounds: ‘You are such a piece of shit employees worth nothing at all. Racism, anti-Semitism, misogyny, homophobia, that literally destroyed me as a human being. You don’t want to antagonize him.”

Another former employee told AD they never knew what to expect from Baudet. “If it goes very well, he lifts you onto his shoulders. But if you make a mistake, you are nothing. When Thierry thinks he’s being harmed, the spines come out. That is very unsafe.”

Another former employee wrote about this in their diary. “I was scared. Afraid of Thierry Baudet and his unpredictable whims,” they wrote, describing Baudet going off on them because there was no ice or lemon for his gin and tonics. “I left quietly. I was still boiling with anger. I wanted to cry but couldn’t. I was now petrified at work.”

Several people mentioned an incident in May 2020, after several members of the FvD’s youth department JFVD were expelled against Baudet’s will for racist and anti-Semitic messages. According to them, Baudet raged against the employee who supervised the investigation, throwing several empty bottles at them that evening. “That was absolutely intimidating, unsafe, toxic, everything.”

Baudet vehemently denies that he threw bottles at an employee. “I threw the bottles over my shoulder in the Greek way, like shards bring luck. That just didn’t happen. Come on. Total slander, total fantasy.” He said about the former FvD members’ claims of intimidation: “I can experience all sorts of things as intimidating,” he said. “My belief is that they lashed out hard at us, and we responded very mildly.”

The correspondence in AD’s possession show that several FvD members complained about Baudet making racist statements. Baudet’s former press officer Tom Gorny said the FvD leader is often guilty of this, referring to a message Baudet sent on the group chat: “African Americans have been living in America for 150 years. Still, score 40 IQ points lower.”

Baudet’s messages were also often misogynistic, according to former employees. Another message he sent on the group chat, according to AD: “And how do we avoid the point that there are differences between, for example, men and women, and therefore also between whites and blacks? IQ, testosterone, metabolism, ability to concentrate, working memory, development of conscience, empathetic power, sensitivity to rhythm, adrenaline, etc., etc.?”

Another former employee said Baudet sent her a porn video featuring George Floyd shortly after the American had died during a violent police arrest. “You can keep a secret, can’t you? Can this be done in the party text?” Baudet texted her with the porn, she said. The former employee did not know how to respond and initially joked along. “Because you don’t dare go against it. I should have reacted differently to that,” she told AD.

Baudet initially told AD that he didn’t remember the porn video but pointed out that the employee was joking along with him after he found it on his phone. “I’m a super respectful boss. I can’t imagine anyone felt intimidated. At the same time, we have a corporate culture where jokes are made about everything. People who leave want to damage us afterward. There is no way the lady in question felt intimidated.”

Several former members got tens of thousands of euros in fines for criticizing Baudet or the party in the media. Eva Vlaardingenbroek received the fine of 50,000 euros on 1 February 2021, a few months after she left the party. The party accused her of leaking “confidential company information” by discussing “the behavior of Baudet” in the media.” “50,000 euros… I was just a student. You can imagine what that was like. A royal amount that makes you feel sick,” Vlaardingebroek told the newspaper.

Henk Otten, once a leader in the party, got fined 170,000 euros after he left due to quarrels with Baudet. Otten challenged the fines in court, and the judge ruled in his favor. Former FvD senator Nici Pouw-Verwij got a 10,000 euro fine after her criticism about a party dinner that got out of hand ended up in the media. The party eventually dropped the fine because her complaint was in an internal letter that leaked to the press.

Baudet told AD that “in a number of cases,” there have been legal proceedings against former FvD members for violating confidentiality rules that are “very common in employment law.” According to Baudet, the party is “very focused on compromise, let’s work it out. But every time the people who left are brought up again in the media, yes, at some point, you send a subpoena.”