Right-wing presenter sentenced to 80 hours of community service for racist comments

The court in The Hague has sentenced the opinion maker and Ongehoord Nederland (ON!) presenter Raisa Blommestijn (30) to 80 hours of community service with another 40 hours conditionally suspended for insulting messages that were posted on the social media platform X. The punishment is higher than the recommendation from the Public Prosecution Service because the judge believes that the seriousness of the facts is not sufficiently reflected in the forty-hour recommendation.

In one message, Blommestijn used the term “negroid primates.” With this, the court said that she was condescending about black people. "The choice of words can only be read as an intention to portray them as aggressive monkeys," the chairman said. Blommestijn posted the message on May 10, 2023, with a video of an assault. Her message pitted two groups of people against each other based on skin color, the court believed.

The court also said it saw no evidence that Blommestijn, as an opinion maker, wanted to contribute with her comments to a public debate about integration that was raging at the time. “What she did do is draw attention to the skin color of a group of people." This was not the only time that Blommestijn was accused of racism after a segment in 2022 in which she used the word "negers," which can be likened to the English word "Negro."

In a different message, she called the lawyer Sidney Smeets a “toddler fucker.” The court sees this as slander. Blommestijn was ordered to pay the attorney a damage compensation fee of 1,550 euros. Smeets quit his position in parliament in 2021 after accusations of transgressive behavior with underage boys.

According to the chairman, Blommestijn has exceeded the "permissible limits under criminal law" with her statements. The presenter of Ongehoord Nederland (ON!) said shortly after the sentencing that she is planning to appeal the decision. She thinks that the conviction is a “black day for democracy, the rule of law, and the freedom of opinion.”

She added that she felt the sentencing showed the bizarre state the country is in. She fears for other people who share her viewpoints and sees the conviction as “ an attack on dissident voices.”