New party formed by ex-FvD members will be called Belang van Nederland

Former FvD members, Hans Smolders, Wybren van Haga and Olaf Ephraim founded their own party called Belang van Nederland (BVNL). The three MPs split from the FvD in May and continued as an independent fraction.

The new party must become “classic, liberal and realistic”, according to Van Haga in De Telegraaf. It is yet to be determined when the party will be launched but Van Haga said it will take “weeks rather than months”.

The three MPs left the FvD after a “difference in opinions about the way in which politics is conducted”. The trio mainly took issue with the leadership style of Thierry Baudet. A decisive issue was a poster that was distributed around Liberation Day in which was made between the German occupation in World War II and the government’s coronavirus measures.

“We do not want to be associated with this poster”, Smolders said. “I don’t think you should make light of the Second Word War. We will continue in good harmony with the FvD, yet as a separate party.”

According to Van Haga, there is room for a party that is more right-wing than the VVD, but less conservative than other right-wing parties, such as the PVV, the FvD or JA21.