Groep Otten

After the establishment of Forum for Democracy in 2016, the founders Henk Otten and Thierry Baudet have fully devoted themselves to the development of their party. In a short time the party managed to win two seats in the 2017 Dutch general election. Two years later, further efforts led to a monstrous victory in the 2019 Dutch provincial elections, yet the party failed to form a college in any province. Baudet was blamed for this by the political parties involved. His earlier statements about social issues have been viewed by many as extreme right, racist and unfriendly to women. In addition, a number of Tweets also caused a great deal of fuss.

On 19 April 2019, co-founder Otten, who was always involved with the party behind the scenes, steps forward in an interview with the NRC Handelsblad. In this interview, Otten criticised the course of the party and the behaviour of Baudet. "Baudet should not unnecessarily ignore our people. It might be nice to make a daring statement, but we are now a big party. He is talking about his own words, but words have consequences. You have responsibility for other people. The question is whether you should use a political party as a vehicle for academic debates that you enjoy yourself. I don't think so."[3] The party leader was "not amused" that this criticism came out.

Less than a week later the fire was opened in public at Otten. Two of the party's three board members, Baudet and Rob Rooken, accused Otten of taking money from the party treasury. The money in question was immediately deposited back to the party account by Otten.[4] Moreover, Otten resigned as a party member of the party at the request of the other two board members. During this period Otten opted for media silence so as not to further harm the party, which was certainly important with the Senate election approaching. In this election, Otten was also the lead candidate for the Forum for Democracy, and the party's intended group chairman. In the aftermath of the internal conflict, Otten renounced the group chairmanship. He was succeeded by Paul Cliteur with whom he entered the Senate (together with ten brand new members of the Dutch parliament).

Owing to suspicions of financial malpractices, Otten was disbarred by the party on 24 July 2019.[5] During this period, Otten immediately visited all kinds of media to speak out against the accusations against him that he himself dismissed as defamation and slander. It is due to disagreements about the course of the party, Otten claims. Otten also promised to make a declaration weigh defamation.[6] In Nieuwsuur Otten hinted at his further political aspirations by the possibility of establishing his own party for the first time.

On 18 August 2019, Otten officially sets up his political party. The new party leader is still looking for a suitable name for his party, but will continue under the name "Fractie-Otten" for the time being. Two members of the Senate have joined him because of the same dissatisfaction with the course of the Forum: former party spokesman Jeroen de Vries and Dorien Rookmaker. The three have chosen to keep their seats. There is even a possibility that the Otten Group can get a seat in the European Parliament. This has to do with the redistribution of seats in the European Union Parliament after the United Kingdom's departure from the EU. The number of seats of FvD then increases from three to four seats. As Rookmaker was the fourth on the list of candidates for the Forum for the European Parliament elections of 2019, she still claims the "Brexit seat" despite her cancelled membership. Dorien Rookmaker joins the European parliament on February 1 2020[7].

The situation in the provincial states was equally uneasy. An increasing number of members of the provincial states expressed their dissatisfaction with the direction of FvD and then cancelled their membership. Some even chose to join Otten's party, including North Holland member of the states Robert Baljeu.[8] In an interview with the NOS, Otten expresses the expectation that more FvD members will make the switch to his party.[9]