“Thierry is on his way to UMCG (Groningen University Hospital) after being attacked again at an event. It seems like everything is going to be okay. Baudet was treated by a traumatologist. They hit him with a beer bottle on the back of his head and also on the edge of his temple, right next to his eye. A security guard also suffered facial injuries,” the party said in a brief statement.
A suspect has already been arrested and is being questioned by police officers in Groningen.
It is the second time in a very short period of time that Baudet has been attacked during an event: almost a month ago, an unknown man hit him on the head with an umbrella while visiting Ghent University in Belgium, he suffered a mild concussion that forced him out to interrupt his election campaign for a few days.
This political party had planned another election event in the city of Zwolle, but canceled it “for reasons of health and safety” of Baudet.
As with his attack in Belgium, Dutch politicians of all ideologies condemned the incident.
“It is completely unacceptable that Thierry Baudet was attacked again. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again now: stay away from politicians. Always. I wish him a lot of strength and recovery,” said acting Prime Minister Mark Rutte.
Frans Timmermans, leader of the left-wing social democratic bloc PvdA and the Green Party GroenLinks, warned: “Violence is always unacceptable and in a democracy it is discussed with words, this attack has no justification.”
The liberal candidate Dilan Yeşilgöz (VVD) called for “keeping your hands off the people’s representatives: you can disagree with someone, but you do it with words, you never attack.”
Christian Democrat Pieter Omtzigt stressed that it was “absolutely and completely unacceptable to physically attack Baudet and harm him, this hits democracy hard,” and regretted that “nothing seems to have been learned from 2002 and Pim Fortuyn.”