Far-right politician Thierry Baudet Baudet to attend election debate at UU

The three biggest study associations of the Faculty of Law, Economics & Governance, namely Perikles, JSVU and ECU '92, are organising a debate on Wednesday evening in the run-up to the Dutch Parliamentary elections on October 29. They organise this debate before every election. Only students from the programmes related to those study associations can attend the debate.

Thierry Baudet has announced that he will participate in the debate on behalf of Forum for Democracy. Other participants include Matthijs Buijs (CDA), Rick van der Zweth (GroenLinks-PvdA), Jaswinder Singh (SP), Queeny Rajkowski (VVD) and Stephan Neijenhuis (D66).

Baudet's participation has caused controversy, and Antifa has announced a counter-demonstration. The activists disagree with Utrecht University (UU) providing Baudet with a platform, arguing that the university is ‘facilitating fascism’ by doing so. People were called upon to bring pots and pans to make noise at the entrance to the Utrecht University Museum, where the debate would initially be held. The event has since been transferred to the Minnaert Building at Utrecht Science Park for security reasons. Antifa will now demonstrate in front of the Administration Building.

A spokesperson for the Faculty of Law, Economics & Governance says that the Executive Board and the Faculty Board have both received an anonymous email from the demonstration organisers asking them not to allow the debate to go ahead. According to the spokesperson, the faculty board refused to meet this demand because it wouldn't be democratic to exclude elected parties.