Baudet decries Russian influence “innuendo,” Says debate is “unworthy” of Parliament

Dutch parliamentarians were set to debate methods Russia may have used to influence Dutch politicians on Tuesday afternoon. The debate in the Tweede Kamer, the lower house, is “unworthy of our Parliament,” said Thierry Baudet, the leader of the far-right political party FvD. He said his party would not attend the hearing.

The Czech Republic announced sanctions against the European news and opinion website, Voice of Europe, and it’s financier and operator. The Prague-based website was accused of being a mouthpiece for Russian propaganda, and for spreading disinformation to affect the outcome of the upcoming European Parliament elections.

Information reportedly leaked from the Czech intelligence service BIS to media outlets in that country stated that hundreds of thousands of euros were funneled through the website to politicians in six European Union countries. Politicians in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France, Hungary and Poland were alleged to have been paid to spread the Kremlin’s messaging.

Thus far, the BIS has declined to publicly identify any individual or party. However, several European Parliamentarians called for the expansion of an investigation into Russia’s influence on MEPs already three weeks ago. They wanted Parliament President Roberta Metsola to also investigate FvD MEP Marcel de Graaff for defending Russia’s forced deportation of Ukrainian children from occupied areas as a way of protecting them.

Baudet himself was also under fire last week, before the BIS report surfaced, for spreading messaging that is sympathetic to Moscow and weakens both the Netherlands and the EU. This was during a debate in which he repeatedly defended his party’s position that the Netherlands should leave the European Union. He was repeatedly questioned by MPs from other parties about his sources of revenue, and those of his party, and his party’s current and past affiliated organizations.

“We once again, unequivocally and emphatically deny any form of financial or other dependence on Russia. No money has been paid to us, there is no ‘kompromat,’ no extortion, no cash, no crypto, no transfer — there is no other link from FvD to the Kremlin,” Baudet wrote on X on Tuesday.

He said that his party was again being subjected to a “witch hunt,” claiming that his faction has also had to contend with death threats. “However, we consider our Parliament unworthy of fact-free talk about gossip and innuendo - as is planned for today,” he wrote on Tuesday. “Bickering and speculation that is based on nothing is reserved for the pub or the kitchen table.”

The Cabinet has contacted Czech authorities, outgoing Minister of Interior Affairs Hugo de Jonge said on Monday. No new information came from the conversation, according to the minister.

Czech authorities did not comment on suggestions that Baudet or other Dutch politicians are a part of the propaganda.

“With that, we have had enough of the false and unjust accusations aimed at our address,” Baudet wrote on X. He then called the war in Ukraine “an unnecessary NATO war that the American gun lobby is waging against Russia.”