The Rise and Fall of the Dutch Forum for Democracy (FvD)

Once known for its progressivism and social tolerance, the Netherlands was long considered 'immune' to the rise of the far right. However, since the turn of the twenty-first century, the country has witnessed the rise of several influential far-right contenders including the Lijst Pim Fortuyn (List Pim Fortuyn or LPF), the Partij voor de Vrijheid (Freedom Party or PVV) and, more recently, the Forum voor Democratie (Forum for Democracy or FvD), led by the flamboyant far-right political newcomer Thierry Baudet. The meteoric rise of the FvD was remarkable by any measure. Founded as a Eurosceptic think tank in 2015, the FvD entered parliament for the first time after garnering 1.8 percent of the vote in the 2017 general election, thereby winning two of the 150 parliamentary seats in the Dutch House of Representatives. In March 2019, the FvD became the largest in the Dutch upper house after winning nearly 15 percent of the vote in Dutch provincial elections. In January 2020, the FvD announced that it had become ‘the biggest party in the Netherlands by membership’, thereby surpassing traditional ‘mass parties’ including the Labour Party (Partij van de Arbeid or PvdA) and the Christian Democratic Appeal (Christen-Democratisch Appèl or CDA). However, the FvD’s ‘success story’ was offset in November 2020, when the party succumbed to infighting. This paper traces the rise and fall of the FvD from its inception to its electoral demise. It does so by focusing in particular on party organisation, notably by comparing the FvD’s party apparatus to earlier Dutch far-right contenders, including the LPF and the PVV. The analysis provides clear evidence of “learning effects”; the FvD sought to model its party by learning from the alleged mistakes of its predecessors. Ironically, the lessons drawn by the FvD ultimately contributed to its downfall.