Heemstede – The leader of a far-right, pro-Russian political party that currently holds five seats in the Dutch parliament was in open conflict with the main Jewish advocacy organization in the Netherlands on Monday, after he posted a tweet with a mocking reference to the Rothschilds, the Jewish banking dynasty that has long provided the raw material for antisemitic conspiracy theories.
Thierry Baudet, leader of the Forum for Democracy (PvD) and the head of its parliamentary group, tweeted a photo of the Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad and his wife Asma with speech bubbles for each. Asma al-Assad asks her husband, “Why does the West want to invade Syria?”, to which he responds, “To rob our oil, put in a puppet government and install a Rothschild bank.”
“Once again, Thierry Baudet releases an antisemitic dog whistle,” the Dutch-Jewish advocacy organization CIDI tweeted in response, adding: “Note the implicit support for the murderous Assad regime. This must not become normalized!”
Baudet then came back with a expletive-laden reply. “F***ers,” he posted, “your authority no longer applies over me.” In another tweet, Baudet urged CIDI to delete its Twitter account.
