Dutch far-right MP Thierry Baudet suffers second attack on campaign
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Mr Thierry Baudet was speaking to people in a bar in Groningen city on the evening of Nov 20 when he was attacked.
PHOTO: AFP
Follow topic:
THE HAGUE - A Dutch far-right MP was attacked for a second time in as many days after a man wielding a beer bottle accosted him in a bar during an election campaign meeting, his party said.
Mr Thierry Baudet was speaking to people in the bar in the northern city of Groningen on the evening of Nov 20 when the incident happened.
Images posted on X, formerly Twitter, showed the politician greeting patrons when a man suddenly and violently hit him at least three times on the side of the head with what appeared to be a green beer bottle.
Mr Baudet is immediately escorted out of the bar, while bystanders subdued the assailant, who was later arrested by police.
Mr Baudet was taken to hospital, his Forum for Democracy (FvD) party said on X.
“It seems everything should be OK,” the FvD added, but it was not known whether Mr Baudet had been injured.
Mr Baudet, a controversial lawmaker, has pushed various conspiracy theories and is known for his outspoken support of Moscow.
In October, he was pounced on at the Ghent University campus in Belgium by an umbrella-wielding man, suffering a light concussion.
Both assaults sparked furious reactions by Dutch politicians from across the political spectrum and calls for increased security for politicians.
The attacks are reviving memories of the 2002 killing of Mr Pim Fortuyn, a populist anti-immigration politician who was assassinated after giving a radio interview while on the campaign trail.
His attacker, Volkert van der Graaf, an animal and environmental rights activist, was arrested at the scene and later sentenced to 18 years in jail.
Van der Graaf was released on parole in 2014. AFP
