"It could have been much worse. Baudet could have won 37 seats."

A short essay on the power of the left, Geert Wilders and the FVD movement.

Viewers of Dutch public television were startled on the morning of 7 January 2024 by a remarkable statement by writer Arnon Grunberg on the talk show ‘Buitenhof’. 'Instead of Wilders,' said the Amsterdam-New York writer, 'Baudet could also have won 37 seats. Then it would have been much worse.' In the typical style of the public broadcaster, no further questions were asked. Why exactly Wilders' win is such a "catastrophe" remained unclear. Nor was the author of Blue Mondays and The Jewish Messiah asked why a similar gain by Forum for Democracy (FVD) would have been “much worse”. Why exactly is the Left panicking? And where exactly does the danger of FVD lie - the younger but feistier brother of Geert Wilders’ Freedom Party (PVV)? Time for a brief reflection.

First, as we know, there are several similarities between PVV and FVD. We both want to stop immigration; we do not believe in the climate story and we love fossil fuels. We also want to leave the European Union and to stop the hopeless euro currency which is causing our pensions to evaporate, and causing endless inflation making life unaffordable. Wilders and I are on friendly terms. And when PVV MP Martin Bosma was elected Speaker of the House, Gideon, Frederik Jansen and I were cheering as much as the PVV parliamentarians were.

Yet there are fundamental differences between our parties: at least two. One takes place at the ideological level, the other at the social level.

Ideology

Unlike the PVV, Forum for Democracy views the three policy areas mentioned - immigration, climate policy and the erosion of our sovereignty by the European Union - as symptoms rather than stand-alone phenomena. In our view, they are symptoms of a larger agenda - a broader, globalist movement that is indeed also focused on permanent demographic replacement (via mass migration), on gaining total control over all human activity and the entire economy (by making CO2 emissions a problem), and on eroding state sovereignty (which disables democracy and allows policies to be implemented against the will of the people). However, this diabolical agenda does not manifest itself only through these three policy areas.

It also manifests itself in the war against Russia, the only European country that refuses to participate in immigration, the climate plans and the removal of sovereignty; it also manifests itself in the unconditional support for Israel, paving the way for endless regime change operations in the Middle East; and also, in the absurd Covid rules, the mandatory vaccination, the lockdowns and the call for more and more rules around 'healthy' living.

That broader movement can be captured in terms such as the "Great Reset," the "Agenda2030," and "Build Back Better. In the 17 'Sustainable Development Goals'. In "public-private partnerships”.

The World Economic Forum at Davos, the ominous Rockefeller Foundation and the Bill Gates Foundation carry it out.

And the agenda that this wider movement wants to push is much broader - and goes much further - than just immigration, climate policy and the loss of sovereignty.

The agenda is about an overall overthrow of European culture as such. Subjecting the free individual to totalitarian control. And creating a divide-and-conquer politics through which we continuously fight each other instead of the powers towering above us orchestrating our artificial contradictions.

The intelligence agencies also play a role in this, hence the need to question the moon landing and 9/11. The arts also contribute to it, which is why we must continue to talk about atonal music, abstract art and modern architecture.

In short, we are dealing with a project that encompasses all sectors of society - and that can only be understood and fought against as such. So, as a political party, Forum for Democracy has a much more comprehensive, a much more complete picture of the opponent and the ideology we are dealing with. Just fighting a trio of symptoms is not enough: we need to get a picture of the disease as such.

Social movement

And this immediately leads to the second fundamental difference. Because whereas the PVV is an exclusively parliamentary movement, without members, without events in the country, without discussion and debate, Forum for Democracy tries to be as broad a social movement as possible. We believe that the crisis in which we now find ourselves is ultimately rooted in a mindset that has eaten into the very capillaries of our society. The universities, journalism, the civil service, science - yes, even the boardrooms of big companies: everywhere you find people who collectively put pressure on politicians to continue with current policies. Because they believe in them. Because they are advocates of the Great Reset, demographic replacement, Agenda2030 and sustainability goals. And the publishing houses, the bookstores, the judiciary, the big awards, the tenders, the LGBTQ quotas, the people behind big tech, big finance and big pharma: we have to fight against all that. We must resist it all. As Donald Trump's presidency has shown: no real change will come from politics alone.

That is why we have our ForumApp with thousands of companies, services, entrepreneurs, plasterers, plumbers, tax consultants, internships, vacancies, offers and vacation rentals. That is why we have our school, our scientific office, our international network. All, to eventually form a whole generation that can either start to replace the current elites, or form a new, parallel society so that we don't have to care about those wretched folks anymore.

Back to Arnon Grunberg

I think Grunberg understands that. I think he sees that the power of the current elites is much more entrenched than you might think at first glance. And that he recognizes that true power has relatively little to fear from a single electoral victory ‘on the right’. The favour of the voters comes and goes, policies can be slowed down in the short term – however, as long as the train races on there is really little to worry about for the powers that be.

It becomes fundamentally different when an actual social power block is formed. When people start trading among themselves, when they organize their own food supply, create their own schools, their own socio-economic network. That is why the Dutch Intelligence and Security Service identified a "parallel society" as the greatest threat to the current order. That is why Boris Johnson, Georgia Meloni or the aforementioned Trump, once in power, could not actually change anything.

And that is why we continue tirelessly with our edifice. Grunberg was absolutely right: the disaster for him and his own would have been much greater if not PVV, but FVD had won the election. In fact, he also implied that it could have happened. And we cannot help but agree with that. It could have happened, and it can still happen. In fact: we will make it happen. So, a wonderful 2024, everyone! And support our movement! Join EerlijkEten, support Amsterdam Books, join the ForumApp and come to our events!

We are all looking forward to it!