The Otten Group (, GO) was a

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...

in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. It was formed following an internal conflict between Henk Otten, former

treasurer A treasurer is a person responsible for the financial operations of a government, business, or other organization. Government The treasury of a country is the department responsible for the country's economy, finance and revenue. The treasure ...

and board member of

Forum for Democracy Forum for Democracy ( ; FvD) is a far-right political party in the Netherlands, originally founded as a think tank by Thierry Baudet and Henk Otten in 2015 before registering itself as a party the following year. The FvD first participated i ...

(FvD), and its leader

Thierry Baudet Thierry Henri Philippe Baudet (; born 28 January 1983) is a Dutch politician, author, and self-declared Conspiracy theory, conspiracy theorist. He is the founder and leader of the far-right Forum for Democracy (FvD), for which he has been a memb ...

History

Internal conflicts within Forum for Democracy

After the establishment of Forum for Democracy in 2016, Otten and Baudet devoted themselves to the party's development. Shortly after its founding, the party managed to win two seats in the

2017 Dutch general election General elections were held in the Netherlands on Wednesday 15 March 2017 to elect all 150 members of the House of Representatives (Netherlands), House of Representatives. The incumbent government of Prime Minister Mark Rutte was the first to s ...

. Further efforts led to a decisive victory two years later in the

2019 Dutch provincial elections Provincial elections were held in the Netherlands on 20 March 2019. Eligible voters elected the members of the Provincial States in the twelve provinces of the Netherlands. The elections were held on the same day as the 2019 Dutch water boards el ...

, but the party was not able to form a

coalition A coalition is formed when two or more people or groups temporarily work together to achieve a common goal. The term is most frequently used to denote a formation of power in political, military, or economic spaces. Formation According to ''A G ...

in any province. The parties involved blamed Baudet. His statements about social issues had been viewed by many as

far-right Far-right politics, often termed right-wing extremism, encompasses a range of ideologies that are marked by ultraconservatism, authoritarianism, ultranationalism, and nativism. This political spectrum situates itself on the far end of the ...

racist Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one Race (human categorization), race or ethnicity over another. It may also me ...

and

misogynistic Misogyny () is hatred of, contempt for, or prejudice against women or girls. It is a form of sexism that can keep women at a lower social status than men, thus maintaining the social roles of patriarchy. Misogyny has been widely practis ...

; some of his tweets were also controversial. On 19 April 2019, Otten stepped forward in an interview with Dutch newspaper ''

NRC Handelsblad ''NRC'', previously called ' (), is a daily morning newspaper published in the Netherlands by Mediahuis NRC. It is widely regarded as a newspaper of record in the country. History was first published on 1 October 1970 after a merger of the Amst ...

''. In the interview, Otten criticised the party's course and Baudet's behaviour. The party leader was "not amused" by this public criticism. A few days later, two of the party's three board members, Baudet and

Rob Rooken Rob Jan Rooken (born 5 October 1969) is a Dutch politician who served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) between July 2019 and July 2024. Rooken worked as a web designer before entering politics. He was also the founder of the IT com ...

, accused Otten of taking money from the party treasury. The money in question was immediately deposited back to the party account by Otten. Otten resigned as a party member at the request of the other board members. During this period, Otten opted for media silence to prevent further harm to the party. In the

2019 Dutch senate election The 2019 election to the Senate (Netherlands), Senate of the Netherlands was held on 27 May 2019, two months after the 2019 Dutch provincial elections, provincial elections. Forum for Democracy, which took part for the first time, became the lar ...

, Otten was the party's lead candidate and intended group chairman. After the conflict, Otten renounced the group chairmanship. He was succeeded by

Paul Cliteur Paul Bernard Cliteur (born 6 September 1955) is a Dutch professor of jurisprudence at Leiden University, as well as a politician, philosopher, writer, publicist and columnist. He is known for his conservative perspective, his atheism, his republ ...

, with whom he entered the Senate (together with ten brand new members of the Dutch parliament). Owing to suspicions of financial malpractices, Otten was expelled from the party on 24 July 2019. Otten immediately visited the media to speak out against the accusations, which he dismissed as defamation, slander. He claimed it was due to disagreements about the direction of the party. Otten also promised to make a declaration weigh defamation. In Dutch news program ''

Nieuwsuur Nieuwsuur (''News Hour'') is a Dutch current affairs television programme produced for the NPO, produced by the public broadcasters NOS and NTR. It is broadcast daily between 9:30 pm and 10:15 pm (9:30-10 pm at weekends) on NPO 2. The progra ...

,'' Otten hinted at his further political aspirations with the possibility of establishing his own party for the first time.

Founding of the Otten Group

On 18 August 2019, Otten officially set up the new party. He was still looking for a suitable name for the party, but it would continue as for the time being. Two members of the Senate, former party spokesman Jeroen de Vries and Dorien Rookmaker, joined him because of the same dissatisfaction with the party's course. The three chose to keep their seats. There was even a possibility that the Otten Group could get a seat in the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it ...

, as the seats in the parliament were redistributed after

Brexit Brexit (, a portmanteau of "Britain" and "Exit") was the Withdrawal from the European Union, withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU). Brexit officially took place at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February ...

. The number of seats of FvD then increased from three to four seats. As Rookmaker was fourth on the Forum's candidates list for the

2019 European Parliament election The 2019 European Parliament election was held in the European Union (EU) between 23 and 26 May 2019. It was the ninth parliamentary election since the first direct elections in 1979. A total of 751 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) we ...

, she still claimed the "Brexit seat" despite her canceled membership. Rookmaker joined the European Parliament on 1 February 2020. The situation in the provincial states was equally uneasy. Some members of the provincial states canceled their membership after expressing their dissatisfaction with the direction of FvD. Some even chose to join Otten's party, including

North Holland North Holland (, ) is a Provinces of the Netherlands, province of the Netherlands in the northwestern part of the country. It is located on the North Sea, north of South Holland and Utrecht (province), Utrecht, and west of Friesland and Flevola ...

member of the states Robert Baljeu. In an interview with the NOS, Otten said that he was expecting more FvD members to join his party.

Policies and beliefs

On its website and initial policy platform, Group Otten declared its main beliefs to be based on a “Triple-E” philosophy which stands for "Effective, Honest and Efficient" (''Effectief, Eerlijk en Efficiënt'' in Dutch). The party called for more direct democracy, a smaller and less cumbersome but more focused government, and political transparency. It also stood for more rational politics over what it described as legislation created by "emotional debates" in the House of Representatives, and wished to prioritize the interests of Dutch citizens.

Representation

Former members of the Senate

* Henk Otten, parliamentary leader (2019–2023) * Jeroen de Vries (2019–2023) * Dorien Rookmaker (2019–2020) * Robert Baljeu (2020–2021)

Former members of the European Parliament

* Dorien Rookmaker (2020–2021)

Former provincial council members

* : Cornelis van den Berg * : Jeroen de Vries * : Robert Baljeu * : Caroline Persenaire

References

External links

* {{Political parties in the Netherlands Political parties in the Netherlands Liberal parties in the Netherlands Conservative parties in the Netherlands Conservative liberal parties Political parties established in 2019 2019 establishments in the Netherlands Eurosceptic parties in the Netherlands Defunct political parties in the Netherlands