The Netherlands is fighting for democracy and progress
Behind the scenes in The Hague, a large part of the Tweede Kamer is considering measures against the far-right wing populist party Forum voor Democratie (FvD). Last Tuesday, a number of party chairmen met for a secret consultation in order to put an end to the 'undermining democracy' and incitement by the FvD.
FvD leader Thierry Baudet denied that his party does not respect the democratic rule of law. Regarding the meeting, he argued that, "They just want to silence the opposition."
Also Dutch politician Geert Wilders, of the far-right nationalist PVV, calls the consultation underhanded and "totalitarian behavior of those fellow party chairmen,” adding that they want to “prohibit unwelcome opinions.”
Covid conspiracy group Viruswaarheid, cut off from banking, will call it quits
Viruswaarheid announced that it will stop as an activist group, said the group's chairs, Jeroen Pols and Willem Engel, on Friday. The immediate reason is a recent lawsuit, which gave ING Bank the ability to close the conspiracy theorist group's bank account.
"Participation in society is impossible without an account. That means that we will stop," said Jeroen Pols.
The group opposed government measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, such as the curfew, as well as the Covid-19 vaccination campaign and the use of the coronavirus contact tracing app and the coronavirus access pass system. Viruswaarheid regularly went to court to try and secure a ban on such measures, but the group lost nearly every case.
The group operated primarily on donations from supporters.
The bank closed the account in November 2020. Viruswaarheid went to court to fight this cecision, and was allowed to use the bank account in the meantime. Last month, however, the court in Amsterdam ruled that closing the account was justified because Engel had not acted "with integrity."
https://nltimes.nl/2022/11/25/covid-conspiracy-group-viruswaarheid-cut-banking-will-call-quits