Background

Baudet, a member of the Dutch House of Representatives and leader of Forum for Democracy (FVD), was sued for the tweets by 4 Holocaust survivors and two Jewish organizations (Centrum Informatie en Documentatie Israël (CIDI) en het Centraal Joods Overleg). The lawsuit described the tweets as “seriously insulting and unnecessarily hurtful to the murdered victims of the Holocaust, survivors and relatives.” [1]

CIDI released a statement at the time of the lawsuit’s filing, saying that “with these comments, Baudet puts the horrors of the Shoah on the same level as the measures against the coronavirus. He is minimizing the importance of the Holocaust.” [1]

One of Baudet’s tweets compared being unvaccinated to being a Jewish person during the Holocaust. “The unvaccinated are the new Jews, those looking away are the new Nazis,” Baudet tweeted in November. [1]

In an interview with Ilana Rachel Daniel on CHD-TV’s online show ‘The Jerusalem Report’, (see below) the Jewish Israeli host agreed with his comparison and noted that many Israelis have made the same comparisons, including holocaust survivors.

Holocaust Survivors also filed a suit with the International Criminal Court in the Hague making this same analogy.  They write:

“If 80 years ago it was the Jews who were demonized as causing infectious diseases, today it is the unvaccinated who are accused of spreading the virus,” they write. The Holocaust survivors concluded their letter as follows: (2)

Significance

This case challenges the free speech of a politician to make comparisons to the Holocaust.

Plaintiff’s Argument

…More information is needed…

…More information is needed…

Relevant Prior Judgements/ Cases

…More information is needed…

Decision

The judge ruled that lawmaker Thierry Baudet needs to delete four tweets he made comparing coronavirus measures and the Holocaust. [1]

“The right to freedom of expression for a representative of the people is not unlimited,” said the judge during the ruling. For each day that the tweets remain online, an additional €25,000 will be imposed on Baudet as a fine. [1]

“By equating in the messages, without any nuance, the situation of unvaccinated citizens with the fate of the Jews in the 1930s and ’40s, you make a comparison, as I said earlier, that is factually wrong and you wrongly use, in other words, you instrumentalize, the human suffering of Jews in the Holocaust and the memories of them,” said the judge during the trial. [1]

Baudet has 48 hours to remove the tweets before the fines begin accumulating. [1]

“The comparison you made in the contested posts goes beyond what can be justified in the interests of robust public debate,” the judge hearing the case said. The judge’s name was not immediately available. [1]

Aftermath

In a reaction on Twitter, Baudet called the judgment “Insane, incomprehensible.” [1]

“We are angry and combative. And of course we will appeal,” he tweeted. [1]

The Jewish groups that started the civil case against Baudet welcomed the ruling, saying in a statement that it “made an important contribution to indicating the limits of the public debate.” [1]

Further Research

Court Documents:

• Read the Court Ruling (in Dutch)

In the news:

• Thierry Baudet verliest kort geding en moet Holocaustuitspraken verwijderen van sociale media

Media

Keyword

Censorship, CHD, coronamaatregelen, Crimes against Humanity, Den Haag, Dutch, Forum for Democracy, FvD, Holocaust, ICC, Ilana Rachel Daniel, International Criminal Court, Jerusalem, Moshe Brown and Hillel Handler, Netherlands, Nuremberg, Parliament, Politician, social media, The Hague, Thierry Baudet, Tweede Kamerlid, Twitter, UK government, Vera Sharav