‘Courageous Critic of the Matrix’: A Far-Right Dutch Politician Is Whiteknighting Andrew Tate

The leader of a fringe far-right Dutch political party has called on his government to intervene in Romania’s prosecution of alleged human trafficker Andrew Tate, hailing the controversial masculinist influencer as an “outspoken political dissident.”

Thierry Baudet, the far-right conspiracy theorist who is leader of the Forum for Democracy (FvD) party, tabled a motion in the Dutch parliament on Wednesday, expressing concern over Tate’s ongoing detention in Romania and calling on the government to work at an EU level for the “humane and just treatment of this courageous critic of the Matrix.”

The move, which was described by analysts as “unexpected by not surprising”, highlights the influence Tate has gained in far-right conspiracist networks around the world.

“The Matrix” is a term used by Tate and his supporters to try to argue, without basis, that he is being unfairly persecuted for political reasons, supposedly for having pushed pro-men, right-wing views that anger the liberal establishment. Tate and his brother Tristan have been held in custody in Romania since late December as part of a probe into allegations of human trafficking and rape relating to their webcam operation, with a judge in Bucharest extending their detention by an additional 30 days late last month. Both deny the charges.

Speaking in the Dutch parliament on Wednesday in support of the motion – which was later defeated 5 votes to 130 – Baudet said that Tate had been locked up “under bizarre circumstances” and called on Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte to ask questions of the Romanian government at an EU level over Tate’s detention.

“Romania is an EU country, and that means that all kinds of principles about rule of law should apply,” he told parliament. Baudet compared Tate’s treatment to that of a Dutch COVID truther activist Willem Engel, the founder of the COVID conspiracist group Viruswaarheid ("Virus Truth") who was convicted last month of incitement in relation to his campaigning. Baudet has also been influential in spreading conspiracist ideas about the pandemic, and was ordered by a court in 2021 to delete social media posts comparing COVID restrictions to the Holocaust.

Baudet’s motion failed to pass when it was put to the vote on Thursday, with only five MPs, all from his FvD party voting in favour, with 130 MPs against.

Speaking to VICE World News on Friday about his support for Tate, Baudet said that he had never met the British-American influencer, nor even even heard of him until his Twitter account was reinstated in November following Elon Musk’s purchase of the company. Tate had been kicked off Twitter and other social media giants in August over concerns he was spreading misogyny on the platforms.

But Baudet said he was speaking out in Tate’s defence because he considered him a political dissident, and had concerns that he may be being silenced by the Establishment.

“I think whenever someone is an outspoken political dissident, which obviously he is – he has been criticising the main ideological characteristics of the modern European or Western general trends – then we should be extra worried about there not being political prosecution,” he said.

He said he did not know the particulars of Tate’s case to form an opinion on whether he was guilty or innocent. “But what I do see is that there is a general trend in the western world of limiting the freedom of political dissidents.”

Asked why he saw Tate as a political dissident rather than an alleged human trafficker, Baudet said the influencer was “obviously very critical of some of the main political tenets in Western society,” citing climate change, “LGBT policies,” coronavirus and taxation as issues where Tate defied liberal orthodoxy.

He’d borrowed from Tate’s own terminology, hailing Tate as a “courageous critic of the Matrix” in his parliamentary motion, in a reference to the idea, pushed by Tate and his defenders, that he was being targeted simply for having challenged the prevailing liberal status quo.

While he was disappointed that his motion had failed, Baudet said he would continue to follow Tate closely and harboured concerns about his treatment.

Extremism experts said Baudet’s support for Tate was understandable, given the latter’s track record of pushing right-wing and conspiracist talking points on issues like gender, coronavirus and the invasion of Ukraine, and the conspiracist narrative he had fuelled over his arrest.

Ciarán O'Connor, a senior analyst at the Institute of Strategic Dialogue who monitors conspiracy movements, said Baudet’s championing of Tate,” a figure who champions misogyny and probably doesn’t need any further help from national politicians to spread his message,” was “unexpected but also not surprising."

"Whether it’s his role as an early Dutch influencer for spreading ‘Great Reset’ conspiracy narratives in the country or, more recently, his anti-democratic remarks regarding Ukraine, Baudet has regularly used his position as a prominent public figure and his platform as a member of parliament in the Netherlands to promote extremists and fringe, baseless conspiracy theories,” he said. 

Tate’s arrest has made him politically toxic, but prior to his arrest he was championed by figures on the right around the world for countering liberal narratives. In August, a clip of Tate saying the situation in Ukraine was “completely NATO’s fault” was retweeted approvingly by Dmitry Polyanskiy, Russia’s deputy permanent representative to the United Nations. 

“It’s reassuring that there are more and more people in the US who have the right understanding of crisis around Ukraine and its origins and dare to speak out despite liberal totalitarian propaganda of US mass media,” he wrote.