Far Right star’s popularity wanes as FvD exodus continues

After populist party FvD's massive win in the Provincial States elections in March, Dutch voters are quickly losing confidence in party leader Thierry Baudet, according to the latest poll by Maurice de Hond. In April Baudet was in 7th place in the ranking of confidence in party leaders. Now he's dropped to 12th place, one spot below his main competitor for voters PVV leader Geert Wilders.

In last week's poll De Hond also noted that the FvD star's light seems to be dimming. "While at the beginning of August the fuss around Henk Otten ad the FvD seemed to have relatively little electoral effect, that is now clearly visible", De Hond said in the poll last week.

If the parliamentary elections were to be held today, the FvD would get 16 parliamentary seats. While that is still well above the two seats the populist party got in the parliamentary elections in 2017, it is four seats less than the last poll before the summer break and 12 less than early April, when the party was still running on the Provincial States election-high.

The loss of confidence is not only affecting voters, but also FvD members. Zuid-Holland Provincial States member Caroline Persenaire announced this weekend that she is leaving the FvD to join the party of expelled FvD senator Henk Otten. She is the fourth Provincial States member to leave the party, NOS reports. Cornelis van den Berg from Flevoland did the same a week and a half ago. Robert Brunke from Zeeland left two weeks ago. And Robert Baljeu from Noord-Holland was expelled in May. Baljeu and Van den Berg will also be joining Otten.

The FvD also lost two senators to the Otten faction - Jeroen de Vries and Dorien Rookmaker. When the Senator's departure was announced, Otten said that he expects more FvD members to join him, also from the Provincial States.