The Weekly Forum - 24 October

Forum for Democracy is usually thought of as an intellectual party, thanks to the impressive background of its founder, Thierry Baudet. This image has been reinforced by the choice of Lidewij de Vos as lead candidate in the elections: she has degrees in both neuroscience and music and is an accomplished violinist  - all at the age of 28. But FVD also has other quivers to its bow. It is a futurist party, deeply interested in the capacities of technology and of ambitious infrastructure projects. In a campaign video, Lidewij reminds viewers that all the great achievements of the Netherlands (and Europe) took place in the decades following the end of the Second World War. Little has been done since, especially in the last three decades – the decades of European integration and chronic decline. FVD proposes to correct this by proposing huge infrastructure projects, including opening the Groningen gas field, building a new airport in the sea, and super hyperloop rail connections to slash transport times between the main centres. Which other party in Europe has such a vision? None. Vote FVD on 29 October.

Watch Lidewij's campaign video here

We continue our mini-series of videos recorded by FVD International’s Marco van den Boomgaard this week with an interview with George Simion, the Romanian politician who earlier this year ran for the presidency in place of Calin Georgescu, whose first round victory last year was inexcusably cancelled by the EU-NATO deep state and who was prevented from running again. The judicial coup d’état is one of the most savage attacks on democracy perpetrated in the EU to date. Marco met Simion at the recent MEGA conference in Dubrovnik. Simion does not have the mesmerising charisma of Georgescu and he lost the poll to an establishment puppet. Not surprisingly, Simion’s message of simple patriotism and national interest has been demonised into extremism but, in this video, he says he is in favour of both the EU and NATO. He is, indeed, very Atlanticist but, like FVD, is opposed to ‘green’ climate policy, immigration and gender ideology; he is pro-growth and pro-natalism. And – guess what? – he is accused of being a Russian spy, just like everyone else who stands up for his own country.

Watch the interview with George Simion here

The Forum has been running as a weekly video podcast for over two years now. We have had more than a hundred guests in that period and we get many thousands of viewers every week. FVD International is pleased to announce the creation of a new Substack where the videos will be collected in one place. (Currently they can be seen on the ‘Live’ section of the FVD International Youtube channel.) As we build up the Substack, it will become an interactive forum (appropriately enough) where our viewers will be able to contribute to the conversation. Subscribe now so as to be kept abreast of every edition of our wonderful show.

The Forum & Friends Substack is here

Our guest on The Forum this week was the formidable Simon Elmer. Based in Hong Kong, Simon has recently travelled to mainland China, like our co-host Jeremy Nell. Both shared their sometimes conflicted opinions about this astonishing country, its achievements and likely future development.

Watch The Forum & Friends here