Far-right party claims "multiple attempts" to hack referendum on Baudet's position

There have been "multiple hacking attempts" to influence the "binding referendum" on the position of Forum voor Democratie founder Thierry Baudet, the far-right party said on Twitter. According to the FvD, reports that voters in the referendum will not be anonymous are "incorrect" and the "membership consultation is going well".

The haste in which the referendum was organized raised some doubts about how secure the voting would be, ANP reports. A number of experts raised concerns about anonymity not being guaranteed, and parts of the voting system being seemingly easier to access than it should be.

But according to the FvD, everything is going well. BigPulse, the company that supplied the voting software, "monitors the progress of the elections constantly and they ensure the security of this election", the party said. The attempted hacks all failed and the FvD reported them to the police, the party said.

Baudet's position in the FvD is uncertain due to chaos sparked by outrage over members of the party's youth division JFvD sending Antisemitic and homophobic messages to each other. Baudet first announced that he was stepping down as party leader, and later also as party chairman. A short time later he said that he would be running in the election for the new FvD leader.

This confusion resulted in a mass exodus from the FvD, with the party losing multiple senators, parliamentarians, States members and other members in a matter of days.