Two far-right FvD campaign videos violate hate speech laws, says prosecutor

The Public Prosecution Service (OM) in Amsterdam has determined that two campaign videos made for far-right political party Forum voor Democratie (FvD) are criminally punishable. It concerns a commercial in which the party tried to draw attention to the consequences of the law mandating the distribution of asylum seekers across Dutch regions, and another about non-binary and transgender people, the OM said on Friday.

The OM said it considers the video about the asylum law to be an expression intended to incite hatred towards asylum seekers, and also should be categorized as being derogatory towards asylum seekers as a group. The other video is an expression that incites hatred against LGBTIQ+ people and as a “discriminatory insult of a person.”

The OM has launched an investigation based on complaints filed in response to the commercials. The Amsterdam police will question the three FvD board members as suspects about the campaign videos broadcast by the party.

The suspects are FvD Chair Thierry Baudet, Treasurer Freek Jansen and Vice-Chair Joris van den Oetelaar. The interviews are expected to take place this month, at which point the OM will determine whether either of the three will potentially face prosecution, according to a spokesperson.

The Public Prosecution Service believes that the video about the Asylum Distribution Act pits asylum seekers as a group against the rest of the Dutch population. The public is being incited to hatred against asylum seekers, the OM believes. In addition, there is a case to be made about group insult, because the video paints a negative picture of the asylum seekers as a whole group.

According to previous court rulings, the group of asylum seekers falls under consideration that they are being discriminated against as a “race,” according to the Public Prosecution Service. The video has been broadcast several times during the airtime earmarked for political parties.

The video about non-binary and transgender people was posted on the Instagram account of FvD in November 2023. Investigators believe the video aims to convince people of the danger of transgender and non-binary people, and is meant to unlawfully incite hatred.