Forum for Democracy (FvD) party leader Thierry Baudet was hospitalised on Monday evening after he was hit in the head with a glass beer bottle in a cafe in Groningen.
Baudet, who was holding an election meeting with members of his party, was attacked for the second time in a month, as a man approached him and smashed a glass bottle against the side of his head, public broadcaster NOS reports.
On social media, the FvD party reported that Baudet was taken to a hospital in Groningen, saying: “A trauma surgeon has just treated Thierry Baudet. He was hit on the back of the head with a beer bottle and was also hit on the edge of his temple just next to his eye.”
The party went on to say that a security guard also suffered facial injuries during the attack, which also prompted the cancellation of another campaign event in Zwolle on Monday evening.
Politicians from across the political spectrum condemned the violence against the populist party leader, who has served as a member of the Dutch House of Representatives since 2017.
Prime Minister Rutte described the attack as “totally unacceptable”, adding: “I said it before and repeat it firmly now: stay away from politicians. Always.”
The leader of the farmer protest party BBB, Caroline van der Plas condemned the “disgusting and cowardly attack again against Thierry Baudet… Violence is unacceptable! Good luck to Thierry!”
Frans Timmermans, the prime ministerial candidate for the leftist-green GroenLinks-PvdA coalition, also condemned the attack, writing: “Violence is always unacceptable. In a democracy, we fight each other with words and this attack cannot be justified in any way. Wishing you a lot of strength.”
“Finally protect that man, enough damn it!” exclaimed fellow anti-mass migration conservative leader Geert Wilders, whose PVV party has surged to the top of the polls ahead of the Dutch general election on Wednesday.
There have been growing fears among the left and the neo-liberal establishment of the growing possibility of a right-wing coalition government taking power in the Netherlands after over a decade of globalist rule under outgoing PM Mark Rutte.
Less than a month ago, Baudet, who has been an outspoken critic of mass migration and the European Union, suffered a concussion after he was attacked by a man who hit him over the head with an umbrella as he was visiting Ghent University.
There has been a wave of attacks against politicians in Europe of late, including this month’s shooting of the founder of the populist Vox Party, 78-year-old Alejo Vidal-Quadras, in Madrid in what may have been an attempted assassination over his political stance on Iran. In August, the head of the German AfD party in the Bavarian district of Augsburg, Andreas Jurca, was brutally beaten on his way to a campaign event by two men of suspected migrant origin.
