Far-right parties clash over 9/11, moon landing conspiracies during crucial debate
The leaders of the Netherlands' two far-right parties, Geert Wilders (PVV) and Thierry Baudet (FvD), spent some time arguing about the 9/11 tragedy in the United States and the moon landing on Wednesday. They did so during the general budget debate, one of the most critical debates in the Netherlands’ parliamentary year, during which the political parties argue over what changes to make to next year’s national budget.
Wilders wanted to know whether it was true that Baudet thought that 9/11 was an inside job and that the moon landings never happened. Turns out, Baudet does not believe in the “established narrative about 9/11.” He spent some time explaining a conspiracy theory about how it is “extremely unlikely that those planes caused those buildings to collapse out of nowhere” and that “a man in a cave on kidney dialysis” could have arranged it all. “I don’t believe it, but I don’t know how it happened.”
He said the same applies to the moon landings. “There are a lot of extremely, extremely strange things in that whole story,” he said, among other things. “I was not there. I was not on the moon at the time to check whether it happened or not, Mr. Wilders, but I think it is very unlikely.”
Wilders interrupted him with a wisecrack. “I think you are already quite far on your way to the moon, Mr. Baudet,” he said. “I tell you, Mr. Baudet: the moon landing did happen. Unfortunately, 9/11 also happened.”
BBB leader Caroline van der Plas got the debate back to the matter at hand - the national budget and the outgoing Cabinet’s plans for 2024. “Back to reality, I’d say,” she said, redirecting the focus to people living in poverty and whether the Cabinet’s plans go far enough to help them.
The general budget debate continues on Thursday, with Prime Minister Mark Rutte and his Cabinet defending their plans and decisions.
In addition to comments on the national budget and, apparently, conspiracy theories, this year’s debate also includes quite a bit of political posturing as the politicians position themselves for the parliamentary election on November 22.
