MPs are increasingly worried about sharing confidential information about the Dutch role in Ukraine with pro-Russian Forum voor Democratie politicians, the AD reported on Tuesday.

The paper quotes one MP as saying that ‘FvD politicians must be kept out of [committee] meetings in which sensitive information about Russia is shared as a matter of priority. The PVV has the benefit of the doubt.’

VVD MP Ruben Brekelmans said ‘alarm bells’ went off when FvD leader Thierry Baudet continued to show support Russia following the invasion of Ukraine. But an upcoming investigation into alleged Russian financial support for the party will have to show if Baudet has close ties with the country before he is excluded, he said.

GroenLinks leader Jesse Klaver, who proposed the motion to investigate Baudet’s alleged financial ties with Russia, said parties such as FvD and PVV should be barred from access to confidential information.

‘We must not only protect ourselves from the Russians but from intervention here in the Netherlands,’ he told the paper.

D66 MP Joost Sneller said ‘a smoking gun’ would be needed to exclude Baudet from meetings. ‘If he is not seen to be an independent MP or shown to leak confidential information we would have grounds to exclude him,’ he said.

Committee

Last week defence minister Kajsa Ollongren said news of weapons deliveries to Ukraine would no longer be shared publicly but instead revealed only to a special parliamentary committee, which focuses on security issues.

The committee (CIVD) is made up of just the parliamentary party leaders of the VVD, D66, CDA and PVV as the four biggest parties in parliament.

It is not the first time Baudet’s party has been excluded from government information. Plans for the purchase of Rembrandt’s Standard Bearer were not shared with the FvD leader for fear of leaks to the press, the AD said.