Former Vuur chair furious with VSP over accusation of 'glorifying violence'

The shockwaves of the assassination of the American political activist Charlie Kirk reached Utrecht University a week later. Lloyd-Leonard Opdam, chair of the right-wing conservative student party VSP sent a letter (accessible only to those with a Solis ID, Ed.) to the Executive Board citing ‘shocking reactions to the death of Charlie Kirk’ on the part of UU students.

Lloyd-Leonard writes that several students have denounced to him that the murder had been ‘trivialised or celebrated’ by UU students. In this context, he mentions a social media reaction by Lieke Fokker, former leader of the Vuur party in the University Council last academic year. He writes that Fokker posted ‘a shocking photo on her Instagram account the morning after the murder, in which the violence was normalised by comparing the murder to the situation in Gaza. To reinforce this, she added clown emojis.’

Hypocrisy
Lieke reposted a message from the account Land Palestine, which compares murdered Palestinians to Charlie Kirk. The photo shows the moment Charlie Kirk is shot, accompanied by the text: ‘What happened to Charlie Kirk happens in Palestine every day and he cheered for it.’

DUB asked Lieke what she meant by the post. She says: "I wanted to expose the hypocrisy with which some conservative circles view whose death matters and whose death does not. I find both the murder of Charlie Kirk and the genocide in Gaza unacceptable and a danger to democracy.'

She goes on: ‘The accusation that I, or worse, the entire Vuur party, encourage or glorify political murder is putting words in our mouths that none of us have ever uttered and that are unthinkable to us as staunch supporters of democracy.’

Online
VSP mentioned Lieke's post on various platforms, including their Instagram page and their podcast. Whereas Lloyd-Leonard refers to what he perceived as a normalisation of violence in his letter to the Executive Board, VSP as a whole goes a step further online, speaking of ‘glorifying violence’. Lieke's post is then mentioned as one of several examples of this.

VSP leader Marlon Uljee said in an article on Nieuwrechts that university student parties glorify violence and that ‘the masks have come off.’ A screenshot of Lieke's post, in which her first and last name were still visible, was posted alongside the article and their Instagram post.

Lieke feels that the VSP is singling her out and is concerned about the consequences this could have for her. ‘Publicly pillorying me on a right-wing platform with an accusation that is completely unfounded is unwise and careless, especially given the increase in extremist right-wing violence, online and otherwise.’

VSP response
After Lieke's explanation, Lloyd-Leonard maintains that she is trivialising the murder of Charlie Kirk. He also finds her post inappropriate. ‘I find the timing of the post, the morning after the murder, completely inappropriate. I think this goes beyond simply expressing your opinion. This is already bordering on the limits of freedom of expression.’

He refrains from saying that she is glorifying violence, as VSP does on other platforms. ‘Glorifying is perhaps too strong a word. I would stick with trivialising. But such reactions create a climate in which threatening politicians is approved – or at least not disapproved of. Her post contributes to that climate.’

He is annoyed that her post was mentioned on the NieuwRechts article. 'We weren't very happy about that. We think it's legitimate to mention a party name and position, but not the surname. We don't think that's proper. We don't like to attack people personally, as we experience it ourselves and we don't want to participate in it. But I didn't hear from Vuur that they considered it a big problem. That's why I didn't pursue it further.' VSP asked NieuwRechts to remove her first and last name. Lieke's post has since been removed from the article in question.

VSP's letter has since been replied by the Executive Board, but this letter has not been posted on the University Council's website yet.