In the parliamentary elections in March 2021 does the new party “We are the Netherlands” in a small number of constituencies. The game comes from the extreme right-wing movement in the Netherlands and presents itself as a representative of the protest movement against the corona measures. Various candidates and supporters have an extreme right-wing background.
Op 21 juni 2020 irons a motley group of concerned citizens, hugging hippies, right-wing extremists, dance lovers and football hooligans down on the Malieveld in The Hague to demonstrate against the corona measures. A large group of protesters, including football hooligans and right-wing extremists, then confronts the police. Heavy fighting breaks out and stones are thrown. The slogan “We are the Netherlands” is proclaimed aloud. In the following months, this slogan pops up more and more at demonstrations against the corona measures, example 19 September in Middelburg, at a protest in which the extreme right-wing group Proud Boys Netherlands prominently participates. The slogan can be heard at a demonstration in Enschede at the beginning of August, where local councilor Erwin Versteeg is one of the speakers.
Establishment
Op 10 december 2020 is this Erwin Versteeg one of the founders of the political party We are the Netherlands, which acts as “the interpreter and representative of the extra-parliamentary national movement and that of the critical citizen” presents. The party originated after a failed adventure at Identitair Netherlands and actually a split off. We are Netherlands focuses on “all patriots, freedom-loving- and anti-vaccine activists, people for the preservation of our traditions and culture, de 100.000de Trump Fans , the Wappies, by complotdenkers, the anti-government activists, by Anti-Globalisten, the nationalists, the Virus madness activists, the entrepreneurs and SMEs, the football fans, the caravan dwellers, the craftsmen and craftsmen, the farmers and country people and every sober, Dutch and self-thinking Dutchman…”. What is also noticeable is the hostility towards anti-fascists and left-wing people. The website opens with a series of anti-antifa pictures, so images from the extreme right angle that are turned against anti-fascists. We are the Netherlands also has a section “Look at Links” on its website where the far-right group “Visor on the Left” can have her say and pillory left-wing people. Below is a video of Peter Siebelt, that has been collecting information from the left-wing movement for years and making revelations about it.
In terms of standpoints, We are the Netherlands evokes the image of an outright extreme right-wing party. They sum it up like this themselves: ““FOR FREEDOM AGAINST CENSORSHIP , NEXIT IS NECESSARY, THE NETHERLANDS FREE AND INDEPENDENT, BOSS IN OWN COUNTRY, FOR CONSERVATION OF CULTURE AND TRADITIONS, POWER TO THE PEOPLE AND PRO-NETHERLANDS ”, “AGAINST CULTURE MARXISM, AGAINST PEDOPHILIA, STOP AND RETURN MASS IMMIGRATION, STOP VIRUS MADNESS, STOP SALE, STOP GROWTH POWER ELITE, ANTI- GLOBALISM ”.
We are the Netherlands in action
According to the action group Dutch Survivors, a group of ten sympathizers of Wij zijn Nederland is locked up 14 December at a demonstration against the corona measures in Rotterdam. The three hundred protesters walk through the city center setting off fireworks and some participants insulting officers. Three people are arrested and a group shouts anti-Semitic slogans. But it is uncertain whether these people have anything to do with Wij zijn Nederland.
Op 20 februari 2021 We are the Netherlands participates in a small corona demonstration in The Hague with the action group Nederland in Opstand by Tinus Koops as a supporter.
The party board
Erwin Versteeg is on the party board of this new party (1962) the position of chairman. Hij wordt in 2018 elected as a councilor for the PVV in Enschede, but soon leaves the party because he is not on the same line as his party members. In 2019 he has been active for some time at Identitair Netherlands and on their behalf focuses on other independent councilors in the country. Identitair Netherlands is in 2018 founded by a few people who were active at Erkenbrand. The group mainly focuses on education and training of the extreme right-wing movement. In January 2020 Erwin Versteeg is still on the board of Identitair Nederland and runs the program committee. In april 2020 the name is changed into Identity Netherlands and participation in the elections is announced. However, the cooperation with Erwin Versteeg is unsuccessful and even in such a way that Identitair Netherlands is now completely renouncing their planned participation in these parliamentary elections..
The secretary of Wij zijn Nederland is veteran Wim Elsthout (1963) Haarlem. He is best known as a municipal councilor for the CD in Haarlem and for a short time as a Member of Parliament on behalf of that party. From the eighties, Wim Elsthout has been a well-known figure in extreme right-wing circles. He starts with the Center Party, but also shows up at the shooting club Lisse in Amsterdam or at a demonstration of the Front National in France. Within the CD Wim Elsthout does not shy away from cooperation with neo-Nazis. Demonstrations with the radical CP'86 are organized and Wim Elsthout will be there. After the loss of the CD, Elst wood turns up at parties such as New Right, Strength! and the PVV.
The treasurer of Wij zijn Nederland is such a neo-Nazi, it is about Willem Adriaan (Aat) Rademaker (1981) from South Holland. He's been diving since 2019 at clubs like the NCE, Antifa Stop Terror (SAT), Young Activist Together (YAT), Identitair Resistance and Outpost. He is involved in organizing one “Camaraderie night” for right-wing extremists in Schiedam and travels in November 2019 with Identitair Resistance to Warsaw to join the annual nationalist independence march.
The candidates
The candidate list that We are the Netherlands has formed for the House of Representatives elections confirms the image of an extreme right-wing party. As usual with these types of small parties, the central board is also at the top of the candidate list. Erwin Versteeg is the party leader and Wim Elsthout is the number two. Democratic parties usually separate power better within a party. The chairman is therefore not also the party leader. Due to the otherwise inadequate party structure, they managed to participate in only six of the twenty electoral districts in the Netherlands. As a result, the real chance of a parliamentary seat has fallen far below zero.
The number three on the list is George Scheffer (1971) from Sint Jansklooster. He is the chairman of the splinter party “Party for the preservation of the Dutch Identity” (PVBNI) and profiles itself with pro-Zwarte Pieten actions and participation in a demonstration of the NCE. In november 2020 PVBNI and NCE start a joint pro-Zwarte Piet folder action in the north of Overijssel, the region where Scheffer lives.
Versteeg has his partner in politics Johan Mulder from Enschede (1964) inherited. Mulder is active in Versteeg's municipal council fraction and followed him to Identitair Netherlands. Johan Mulder is in eighth place as candidate for We are the Netherlands.
The wife of Wim Elsthout, Adriana (Adele) Gilles (1965) Haarlem, is also one of the candidates. She too has had a long career in the CD since the eighties. She was often a candidate and was a faction worker. Afterwards she shows up with her husband at Forza! and the PVV. According to the website of Wij zijn Nederland, she gives now “voice to broadcaster Ongehoord Nederland”.
Miro Schäfer is from Rotterdam (1966) candidate number six. He was in 2018 one of the candidates for the PVV in Rotterdam and is an active sympathizer of Pegida.
As the last candidate of Wij zijn Nederland, we mention municipal councilor Menno Jas (1983) of De Realistic Feest from Hoorn in fourth place. He had already been noticed with his stance against housing asylum seekers. On social media he focuses on groups such as Identitair Resistance, Outpost, Turn right Nijmegen, the PVV and Forum for Democracy. Chairman Marc van Dijk of The Realistic Party played an organizing role in an extreme right-wing demonstration in front of the statue of VOC man Johan Pieterszoon Coen in June 2020. Marc van Dijk is not a candidate now, but wears his pro-J.P. Coen does express his position on the website of Wij zijn Nederland.
The supporters of Wij zijn Nederland
A global look at people who went to town hall to submit a statement of support for the party shows that there are many right-wing extremists who support the party. In addition, the veteran right-wing extremist Marcel Hoogstra (1966) from Spijkenisse involved in the coordination of the election participation. He was once a councilor of CP'86 and founder of the Ku Klux Klan (FAQ) in Nederland. A selection of the signature setters:
Ben van der Kooi (1974) from Rotterdam is one of the best-known extreme right-wing activists from the Netherlands. In addition, he has appeared in many demonstrations against the corona measures in the past year. This is how Ben van der Kooi gets on 17 January 2021 photographed on the Museumplein in Amsterdam when he is pulling stones out of the ground with a group of rioters. In a reaction to a demonstration, he indicates that he wants to give his life in his fight for more freedom. He has been walking around in extreme right-wing circles for twenty-five years and was “activist of the year” of the NCE in 2015. He was in prison for a time as a suspect in the arson of a mosque, but was acquitted. He also keeps photos or newspaper articles of other unresolved mosque fires. There are actually very few extreme right-wing groups in which Ben van der Kooi has not been involved for some time: CP'86, New Right, Pegida, Outpost, Identitair Resistance, Right in Resistance and Forum for Democracy.
Peter van Egmond (1950) from Velsen Noord is mainly an old friend of Wim Elsthout from the CD era. Together they were in the same section of the CD in the nineties and in the early nineties Van Egmond was a member of the CP'86. But Peter van Egmond has taken a much more radical path and for ten years now party secretary of the neo-Nazi party NCE. He is often a speaker at demonstrations of the NCE and also a member of Outpost.
Sjon de Haas (1956) from Rotterdam has been diving since mid 2017 on extreme right-wing street actions. He has a wide range of action with groups such as Proud Boys Nederland, Antifa Stop Terror (SAT), Right to Resistance, Identitair Resistance, Young Activist Together (YAT), Outpost and the Yellow Vests. He's one of the Feyenoord hooligans running on 21 juni 2020 around the Malieveld “We are the Netherlands” chants. He is then arrested for the violence he uses against the police. In many media his photo shows up when he is in a fighting attitude towards the police. Sjon de Haas will also be present at the above-mentioned demonstration in Middelburg and there will be again “We are the Netherlands” chanted.
Also Hugo Kuijper (1982) from Hoofddorp is a very active right-wing extremist. Under the names of his organizations Zwarte Pieten Action Group (ZPA) and Right in Resistance (Tear) he is responsible for dozens of campaigns every year. It is estimated that his organizations import 2020 about seventy actions, mostly in the night hours. This mainly concerns pro-Zwarte Piet campaigns at educational institutions and town halls by means of chalking slogans and pasting posters.. But also about a RiV banner campaign against a mosque in Almere in May 2020. An elderly local resident wants to remove the banner and Hugo Kuijper pushes it away. The old man falls and breaks his hip. One of the most striking actions in 2020 is the home visit to the anti-Zwarte Piet activist Akwasi by some ZPA-Zwarte Pieten, including Hugo Kuijper himself. Kuijper has a history with the NCE and Pegida and a long-term relationship with Outpost. He was also involved with Identitair Netherlands and contact with the Realistic Party in Hoorn.
Bernie Flapper (1974) from Haarlem has popped up the last ten years especially at Outpost as one of the most important activists. However, he has been a well-known right-wing extremist since the 1990s, including a line to the CP'86. In 2016 Flapper can also be seen with Pegida at their demonstrations and he attends the Erkenbrand conference.
Raffie Cohan (1951) from Rotterdam is from 2014 in the picture as an activist for groups like Pegida, Dutch Defence League, Outpost, Identitair Resistance, Right in Resistance and Vlaams Belang. Because of her discriminatory speech at a Pegida demonstration in October 2015 she is prosecuted and eventually fined. Raffie Chohan enters early 2019 on the NCE news and she also received moral support from the NCE around her criminal case.
Martijn Janssen (1967) from Rotterdam has been around for more than twenty years with extreme right-wing groups. We call groups like the National Alliance, New Right, Outpost and Erkenbrand. He has been particularly active on extreme right-wing internet forums such as Polinco and Holland Hardcore. One of the common threads in his online activities is his anti-Semitism. For example, he posted on the Internet forum Stormfront under the alias "Sick of Jews"
Kim de Jong (1986) from Enschede is active in the municipal council of Erwin Versteeg. Five years ago, she was a leading figure in the radical protesters against the community activist group (DTG), some of whom received hefty sentences after they threw an incendiary bomb at a mosque full of people. Her partner Raphaël Marchese was the foreman of the DTG and that group arose from the protest against the arrival of an asylum seekers' center in the Dolphia district. Kim de Jong is on behalf of the DTG in December 2015 speaker at a demonstration of the neo-Nazi Camaraderie Northern Netherlands (KNN) in Oude Pekela. In January 2016 she is a speaker at a Pegida demonstration in Apeldoorn. More recently she orients herself on social media for groups such as Identitair Netherlands and Forum for Democracy
Raphael Marquis (1974) from Enschede was the foreman of DTG. Rond 2015 en 2016 he visits demonstrations of Pegida and the neo-Nazis of the KNN. In January 2017 he has a meeting with the NCE on behalf of the DTG, but that is “no success”. In oktober 2017 Marchese takes part in an Outpost campaign in Enschede and he does the same in June 2018 during an action by the Right in Resistance, as representative of Outpost.
Troubadour
Finally, we would like to mention someone who is not a candidate or supporter in these elections, but who on social media like “befriended troubadour” van Wij zijn Nederland is presented. It concerns the musician Wilfred, a pseudonym of Robin Versteeg (1972). Robin Versteeg was in neo-Nazi circles in the 1990s at clubs such as Hou Kontakt and CP'86. He was also present at the installation of Wim Elsthout as Member of Parliament of the CD in Noord-Holland 1991. Robin Versteeg often performs at parties of Outpost.
Conclusie
We are the Netherlands appears superficially perceived as representing the interests of people who are critical of corona measures. A closer look reveals that among the board members, candidates and constituencies of the party hardened right-wing extremists walk around. The positions of We are the Netherlands are completely in line with this.
