Far-right Baudet's statements about AIDS "racist and homophobic": Humberto Tan

Talkshow host Humberto Tan responded with outrage to statements made by far-right FvD leader Thierry Baudet about AIDS. Baudet called AIDS "a disease that hardly exists" for white heterosexuals. On his talk show Humberto on Sunday evening, Tan said: "Baudet finds it necessary to downplay all that suffering and pour racist, homophobic sauce over it." RTL Nieuws reports.

Baudet made his statements during a visit to Heerhugowaard this weekend. He said that "the chance that a white, straight person will get AIDS is smaller than the chance he will be struck by lightning." He called the chance that a white straight person will get the disease caused by HIV "negligibly small."

"This story is supposed to underline the superiority of white men," Tan said about Baudet's statements on Sunday. "And when he is addressed about those statements, 'we' did not understand it correctly and 'he' did not mean it that way."

"Mark Rutte's brother, Eberhard van der Laan's brother, my brother. All three died of the effects of AIDS, like so many men and women who have died of aids," Tan said. He added that he could show with figures from the Aidsfonds, among others, that Baudet's statements are nonsense. "But that's not what he's about."

Tan said he hesitated about responding to Baudet's racism and homophobia for a long time. He asked the Aidsfonds for comment, but the fund refused to answer because it found Baudet's statements too appalling. But Tan had had enough. "Sometimes, you just can't stay silent."

Baudet responded to the talk show on Twitter, implying that he was misunderstood. "Always the 'outrage' and emo card to hold the debate hostage. My point was that in the 1990s, European straight people were terrorized with AIDS fears when the chances of that happening were and are extremely small. And I said this to explain what is happening with corona."