Dutch far-right politician supports Trump's action against "left wing extremism"

Thierry Baudet, leader of far-right party FvD, expressed support for United States President Donald Trump and his decision to label protest movement Antifa as a domestic terrorist group. "Very good decision by him," Baudet said to WNL on Monday morning.

There have been multiple protests against police violence against black people in the United States since the arrest of George Floyd ended in his death last week. Video of the Floyd's arrest surfaced online, showing a police officer kneeling on his neck for some eight minutes while he tells them that he can't breath. Floyd died in hospital a short time later, the latest in a series of black people killed in police violence in the United States.

While many of the protests in the United States were peaceful, some turned to rioting. On Twitter Trump multiple times accused Antifa of 'hijacking' the protests to loot and riot. In a press statement released on Sunday, Attorney General William Barr wrote, "The violence instigated and carried out by Antifa and other similar groups in connection with the rioting is domestic terrorism and will be treated accordingly." Barr also said that the U.S. Department of Justice will focus on "apprehending and charging the violent radical agitators who have hijacked peaceful protest and are engaged in violations of federal law."

The extent to which people aligned with Antifa were actually involved in rioting incidents was not clear. After several days of trouble across many cities in America there have also been multiple reports linking the violence to right wing extremists trying to discredit the demonstrations against anti-black violence and intentionally enflame the situation.

After George Floyd's death in police custody, protests against this violence were also held in London and Berlin. At least one protest will also be held in Amsterdam on Monday.

Nevertheless, Baudet praised Trump's decision to label Antifa domestic terrorists. "We have seen for years that a blind eye is turned to violence from the left, that there is much less fuss about it," he said on Goedemorgen Nederland on NPO1. "Left-wing terrorism is often called activism. It has been the case for many years that there is much more violence on that side of the spectrum than on the right side of the spectrum, while everyone is constantly paying attention to that."

According to Baudet, Antifa "is simply a terrorist organization". He said, "It is an organization that uses violence. The riots we see here are raids."

Baudet said that everyone is against racism and police brutality. "Everyone agrees that it is terrible that George Floyd died." He also called it "terrible and incredibly worrying what is happening there in in America", saying he hopes that it will not spread to Europe.