Baudet does not show up to the Speaker of the House, but regrets threatening Klaver | Politics

Baudet has another appointment on Thursday morning, Bosma said. He did apologize by telephone for the incident with Klaver. Baudet has also agreed to make a public statement, Bosma says.

The Speaker of the House wrote in a letter to Parliament on Wednesday evening that he had been informed about the incident by others. “Mr Klaver has indicated that he feels threatened, and I can well imagine that,” Bosma wrote. “I cannot tolerate threats.”

After the debate, Klaver asked Baudet to send the 2016 annual reports of the FVD foundation, the predecessor of the political party. Klaver said against NRC that Baudet had replied: “I’m not going to do that. And if you ask again, I’ll punch you in the mouth.” Baudet confirmed to the NOS that he indeed said this because he was angry.

The Speaker of the House called Baudet’s words “completely unacceptable”. Bosma stated in the letter that the FVD leader “has exceeded boundaries and standards of decency”.

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The threats against Klaver followed a debate about a possible Nexit referendum. During that debate, Klaver and Jan Paternotte (D66) came into serious contact with Baudet.

In that debate, Klaver and Paternotte asked questions about donations to the foundation that was the predecessor of FVD. When Paternotte said that the FVD’s statements were very similar to those of the Russian government, Baudet felt “his honor was damaged”. “In any other situation, I would punch someone in the face if you think that about me,” he then said.

Paternotte asked House Speaker Bosma to call Baudet to order, but Bosma rejected that request. The Speaker of the House had the idea that Baudet meant the words figuratively to express his anger and did not hear any call for violence in them.

Paternotte disagreed. “This is abusing parliament to incite people to intimidation, threats and violence.”

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