Democracy Forum MP Pepijn van Houwelingen was fined €450 for hanging a Nazi flag on Twitter. The Public Prosecutor’s Office decided on this sentence for insulting him.
At the end of September, Van Houwelingen posted a photoshop online of a photoshop of Health Ministers Kuipers and Van Gennip in charge of Social Affairs and Employment. The photo shows Kuipers raising a Nazi flag. Van Gennip is ready.
In the original photo, the ministers were raising a different flag: the Sustainable Development Goals, the world goals for sustainable development.
Van Houwelingen’s tweet:
Van Houwelingen deleted the tweet after a while, but the ministers still complained. Kuipers said a line had been crossed. “This flag still brings back many bad memories for many Dutch. You don’t want to be associated with it.”
According to Van Houwelingen, the reason the photo was published was because he and his party members were often associated with National Socialism and fascism. “But once we do – no matter how jovial and cynical – the world is very small,” he said at the time. Party leader Thierry Baudet said the cabinet was trying to “silence” his party.
Source: NOS
Emma Fitzgerald is an accomplished political journalist and author at The Nation View. With a background in political science and international relations, she has a deep understanding of the political landscape and the forces that shape it.
