Freek Jansen

Frederik Jan Harm "Freek" Jansen (born 6 December 1992) is a Dutch politician who served as a member of the House of Representatives (2021–2024) for the far-right Forum for Democracy (FvD) party. He previously chaired the FvD youth wing, the Jongerenorganisatie Forum voor Democratie (2017–2021).

Jansen studied political science and joined Forum for Democracy in 2016, when it became a political party from a think tank. He established its youth wing the following year and became its chair on 1 April 2017. Jansen also assisted the party's House caucus. Reports about extremist messages by members of the youth wing in 2020 led to criticism of Jansen and caused a split within FvD. Jansen became a member of the House of Representatives after he was elected in the 2021 general election. He was reelected in 2023, before he stepped down in January 2024, ceding his seat to Pepijn van Houwelingen.

Jansen was born in 1992 in the Gelderland town of Oldebroek and grew up there. He studied political science at the University of Amsterdam starting in 2011. Jansen is an IT professional, and his first job was as an assistant to the clerk of the municipality of Westland.

Jansen assisted Forum for Democracy when it transitioned into a political party in 2016. At that point, the organization had already been in existence as a think tank for a number of years. Jansen had first met party leader Thierry Baudet in September 2012 after Baudet's HJ Schoo-lezing, an annual lecture. Jansen founded the FvD's youth wing in 2017 and started serving as its chair. That same year, he also joined Forum for Democracy's caucus in the House of Representatives.

When Forum for Democracy received a plurality of the votes in the 2019 provincial elections, Jansen co-wrote Baudet's victory speech. He also ran for Member of the European Parliament in the 2019 election, ranking sixth on the party list, but he was not elected due to FvD winning three seats. It was revealed the following year that Jansen had helped arrange a controversial 2017 meeting between Baudet, Jansen, white supremacist Jared Taylor, and the Dutch alt-right association Erkenbrand. Besides, news magazine HP/De Tijd reported that his former superior at the Westland local council had written in a statement of defense for a labor dispute that Jansen had downplayed the Holocaust and had lauded the economic policies of Nazi Germany. Forum for Democracy called the statements "ridiculous and defamatory".

In April 2020, HP/De Tijd published an article about members of Forum for Democracy's youth wing being worried about right-wing extremist ideas that were expressed in WhatsApp group chats. In response, three members were expelled due to unacceptable statements and another three were suspended. The youth wing also expelled at least five whistleblowers. Forum for Democracy announced in October 2020 that Jansen would be the party's seventh candidate in the 2021 general election.

Newspaper Het Parool wrote the following month that antisemitic, Nazi, and homophobic thoughts were still being held and expressed by members of the FvD's youth wing. Its board started an internal investigation and suspended itself in the meantime. Jansen reacted by saying that there was no place in the organization for "racist and antisemitic ideas". Forum for Democracy politician Annabel Nanninga called the youth wing's response "too little too late" and called for the division to be reorganized, while Baudet continued to express his support for Jansen. Shortly after, Forum for Democracy announced that Jansen had given up his spot on the party list for the 2021 election.

After a number of prominent FvD members had left the party because of the controversy and Baudet had retained control over the party, a new party list for the 2021 general election was presented in late December. Jansen returned as the party's seventh candidate, and he was elected in March with 4,331 preference votes. Thierry Baudet and Theo Hiddema stated that they were among the people who had voted for Jansen.