The light is on in Hugo de Jonge’s house. “So there are clearly people at home,” says Max van den B. when he rings the doorbell in the evening of December 21. The 29-year-old corona vlogger rode an OV bicycle to the house in Rotterdam. To ‘get a story’ from the minister. He broadcasts it all live on his online channel ‘OnrechtTV’.
Eighty-five viewers see how Van den B. rings the doorbell at the house. He yells at a closed door that Hugo de Jonge is threatening him. The minister would like to force unvaccinated people to get a shot. “That’s a vaccine obligation, that’s a death threat!”
When the police arrive, Van den B. says that he had been planning to visit the minister for some time. “I’ve had this in my mind for two weeks.”
What happened two weeks before that, when he came up with the idea?
That is the moment that Hugo de Jonge’s address is shared in a chat group of Forum for Democracy supporters.
‘FvD sounds‘ is the name of the group, active on the online messaging service Telegram. More than eight thousand people in the group read and write, including the OnrechtTV account for which Van den B. makes his films. At the beginning of December, the chat group is about Hugo de Jonge. The minister has just said in the House that he has a good idea of the group of unvaccinated people and their motives – he even knows where they live in zip code area. In the Telegram group, that comment is explained as if De Jonge would target for compulsory vaccination. De Jonge’s own address is then shared. Send him a Christmas card, the call reads, with the text: “We know where you live too”. Other group members suggest to organize a party in front of his door. Or pass by with a rock.
Ultimately, vlogger Van den B. actually visits. Two weeks later, after his visit to De Jonge, he is at Minister Sigrid Kaag’s doorstep. This time with a flaming torch. Her address was also shared in one of the chat groups of FvD Sounds. The vlogger was sentenced to six months in prison on Wednesday for threatening Kaag.
Call to paste posters
When it comes to intimidation and threats to politicians and administrators, the Forum for Democracy is often referred to. The party would fuel violent actions with its rhetoric about a ‘fake pandemic’, which would have been invented by corrupt politicians. A party-affiliated Telegram group plays an important role in this translation – possibly inciting the grassroots towards violence.
Formally, this group, FvD Sounds, is separate from Forum for Democracy. It is emphatically stated in the group’s biography: ‘This channel is not controlled by FvD’. The reality is different. The chat group is managed by a provincial coordinator of FvD. Other FvD coordinators and local politicians are active in it. NRC read in the group under a pseudonym and identified them through their phone number, which is linked to their Telegram account.
The coordinators regularly post in the channel calls for volunteers to help with party events and actions, or requests to become members. For example, there is currently an action to stick posters throughout the Netherlands. All other political parties are then accused of being part of a worldwide plot to oppress the population. ‘The Great Reset’‘ reads the poster. This winter, coming for you and your family.The faces of Mark Rutte and Sigrid Kaag adorn the poster next to those of billionaires George Soros and Bill Gates. In the background, riot police can be seen dealing blows.
There is no sender on the posters, but they are from Forum for Democracy. “Dear FvD fighters”, writes the Drenthe coordinator of FvD. “The poster shows who is pulling the strings (..). Think of this as a warm up for the campaign. We need your help to stick this poster all over Drenthe.” The group members then post pictures of the posters they just put up.
Threatened with death
The coordinators use FvD Sounds in the run-up to the municipal elections in March. By recruiting members and soliciting statements of support. One of them is Abdullah Alkasid. He is the administrator and co-founder of the Telegramgroep and also chief coordinator of FvD in North Brabant. According to the party regulations, chief coordinators are responsible for the provincial department and are in direct contact with the party board.
Administrator Alkasid speaks on Telegram affectionately about Thierry Baudet as “our beloved party leader”. He writes that his relatives in Iraq were massacred by former dictator Saddam Hussein because they were a religious minority. “And the cartel parties, including Sigrid Kaag, finance all those terror groups.”
Political opponents are threatened with death on FvD Sounds. The administrators themselves often give the lead. For example, when former hospital boss Ernst Kuipers comes on a talk show to talk about what to do with unvaccinated people. The administrators of FvD Sounds post his photo and ask the question: “What should we do with Ernst Kuipers. Do you know it? Please leave your comment below this post”. Threatening responses such as “lynching!” leave them alone.
The group is inspired by radical statements by FvD politicians. like it threat from MP Pepijn van Houwelingen to D66 colleague Sjoerd Sjoerdsma. “Your time will come, because tribunals are coming.” Administrator Alkasid then places a photo of a smiling Sjoerdsma and writes: „Just smile while you can. That will not be the case in the tribunal. Never again!”
In the comments below, Sjoerdsma is then threatened. “That bitch will hang.” The members fantasize that Sjoerdsma will long for the cell, because the vengeful mob will pounce on him “mercilessly”. Alkasid also refers to a tribunal under a photo of the previous cabinet. “Traitors! The tribunal will deal with them!”
As Volt politician Nilüfer Gündoğan in a debate says that she receives annoying emails from the FvD supporters, MP Gideon van Meijeren says he is “proud” of his members. Alkasid places a video of this in the Telegram group with a disguised call: “Whoever sows will reap, so good luck with your mailbox”. In the comments, Gündoğan’s e-mail address is posted, she is insulted, and is called upon to harass her further. “Come on guys, there can be a lot more shit in that mailbox. Hunting season is open.”
‘I’ll get you’
Not only politicians are threatened in the group. If a bookseller from Brabant decides that he only wants to allow vaccinated people in his shop, an administrator of FvD Sounds shares his address and telephone number, and suggests calling the number or sending a WhatsApp message. Not that he wants to call for ‘criminal acts’, but: ‘that doesn’t mean we can’t let you know what we think about it’.
The group members know enough. Immediately after the call, the bookseller is called at least twenty times in the evening, says the entrepreneur, who wants to remain anonymous because he is still afraid. “They shouted, ‘Dirty bastard, we know where to find you!’ Another caller remained silent and suddenly said, “I’ll get you.” It felt very threatening.” In dozens of apps, he is called an NSB member and it is stated that he has children. “Get well soon.”
When he returns to his shop after two days, ‘NSB’ is chalked on the front door in thick black letters. He considers filing a complaint, but does not dare to go through with it. “I thought: let it blow over as quickly as possible.”
Threats are rarely acted upon in the Telegram group. However, the administrators write against sharing addresses: “Sharing addresses of politicians is punished with a ban in this group!” But they leave several messages with Hugo de Jonge’s address. And in the FvD Sounds group for Frisian supporters, the administrator says he sees nothing wrong with sharing addresses. “Can you send a card, right?”
Group manager and party coordinator Alkasid appears to support violent actions. In November, for example, he shared a video of Italian protesters trying to knock over a police bus. Alkasid calls their action “amazing”, with a muscle emo behind it. On January 14, he praises Bulgarian protesters who storm the parliament building. “They do not succumb to tyrants, on the contrary to many Dutch.”
He also places strategies for Dutch corona demonstrations: “If the ME manages to surround one of the groups, direct contact will be sought with the other groups to help the surrounded group by surrounding the ME.”
Also read: Wilders and Baudet big on social media thanks to the hard core of fans
Global conspiracy
In addition, the amount of anti-Semitic statements within the chat group is striking. The administrators are ambiguous about this. On the one hand, they congratulate Jewish members of the Telegram group on their holidays. At the same time, Jews are constantly suspected through the channel as traitors and liars and part of a worldwide conspiracy.
According to FvD spokesman Robin de Keijzer, the Telegram group is “in no way affiliated with FvD”. In 2018, it was agreed with the group that they would not use the party’s logo, says De Keijzer.
Yet with administrator Alkasid there is a direct line between the Telegram group and the party leadership. Alkasid is part of the Forum campaign team and travels with party leader Baudet in a coach throughout the country as the ‘freedom caravan’. While Baudet addresses the crowds, Alkasid operates the Forum camera for the party’s online channels. He can be seen filming in a white Forum coat at various campaign meetings, such as in Helmond, Uden and Purmerend. During party meetings and demonstrations, he takes a picture with FvD MPs such as Baudet, Gideon van Meijeren and Pepijn van Houwelingen.
‘Not up to date’
Alkasid confirms over the phone that he is FvD chief coordinator in North Brabant. As group manager of FvD Sounds, he adheres “to the guidelines of the party”, he says. He also refers to FvD spokesman De Keijzer. He says that Alkasid did not follow the messages of the many participants in the group, so that he was “not aware” of threatening messages. Forum ‘of course distances itself from this’ as a ‘democratic party’.
FvD would not have known that Alkasid runs the Telegram group – although he does so under his own name. Until today. Because the coordinator is “terrified” and has “withdrawn immediately” from the chat group.
Also read: Threat Kaag maintained contact with FvD
A version of this article also appeared in NRC Handelsblad on 22 January 2022
A version of this article also appeared in NRC on the morning of January 22, 2022
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