Willem Engel

Last updated
Willem Engel (2020) WillemEngelSept2020.jpg
Willem Engel (2020)

Willem Christiaan Engel (born 15 March 1977) is a Dutch activist who founded the controversial organization Viruswaanzin (loosely translated: Virus Madness), and leads it under its new name Viruswaarheid (loosely translated: Virus Truth). The organization regularly protests against governmental measures on COVID-19 [1] and also often promotes alternative theories (about COVID-19). He for example believes that reported cases and risks [2] of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Netherlands have been exaggerated, and the theory that measures against the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 are used to restrict fundamental rights. He is also against vaccination against COVID-19 [3] and believes the SARS‑CoV‑2 escaped from a lab in Wuhan. In March 2022, Engel was arrested for incitement after nearly 23.000 people had pressed charges of inciting violence, spreading medical misinformation, fraud, making statements with terrorist intent, and threats. [4] While released under the restriction of no social media interaction at 30 March, [5] at 3 April he was arrested again because he breached the terms of his release. [6]

Contents

On 20 January 2023 he was convicted of inciting breaking the law (he urged people to attend a forbidden demonstration). His sentence was one month imprisonment, with deduction of time served. The sentence is probationary for 2 years and suspended. [7]

Biography

Engel was born on 15 March 1977 [8] and grew up in a large family. He is the son of a real estate mogul. [9] He studied biopharmacy and started his doctoral studies, but he never finished his PhD degree. In 2008 he left the field and started a dance academy where he is a dance teacher teaching Brazilian zouk.

Politics

Viruswaanzin/Viruswaarheid

In May 2020, after his dance school business had to close because of the COVID-19 pandemic, he founded the organization Viruswaanzin ("virus madness"), which was later renamed to Viruswaarheid ("virus truth"). [10]

Engel's organization claims that corruption in the government has ruined some people, and that the number of deaths from COVID-19 is comparable to a normal flu season. In early 2021 he started a court case against the curfew that had been instated by the Dutch government, and the court ruled that there was insufficient legal basis for the imposed curfew. The Dutch government appealed and with a sped-up procedure passed a law that provided the legal ground for the measure. [11] The measure was accepted by the House of Representatives on 18 February 2021 and by the Senate on the next day, the same day the appeal was handled by a higher court (which nullified the lower court's judgment).

The organization makes personal attacks against politicians and virologists. In January 2021 Michaël Verstraeten, public spokesman of the organization, called for re-introducing the death penalty to punish virologists; [12] [13] one year later, in January 2022, Engel shared the home address of Sigrid Kaag, leader of the Dutch Democrats 66 party and finance minister, on Twitter. Kaag reported this to the Dutch police [14] and Engel's Twitter account was temporarily suspended.

Vrij en Sociaal Nederland

In January 2021 Engel joined Vrij en Sociaal Nederland  [ nl ], a new political party that looked to get seats in the House of Representatives during the 2021 Dutch general election. He was placed third on the party list. [15] His placement on the list, however, caused a split in the party, which resulted in the formation of Lijst30, better known as Heart for Freedom. [16]

2022 Ukraine invasion

Right after the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Willem Engel gave an interview in which he stated he understood the geopolitical reasoning behind Russia's invasion of Ukraine. He filed a lawsuit against the Dutch government for supplying weapons to Ukraine. [17]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heleen Mees</span> Dutch columnist, lawyer and feminist

Heleen Mees is a Dutch opinion writer, economist, and lawyer. Involved with politics and public policy in the Netherlands and the US, she has also taught at universities in both countries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wilhelmina Drucker</span> Dutch politician and writer

Wilhelmina Drucker was a Dutch politician and writer. One of the first Dutch feminists, she was also known under her pseudonyms Gipsy, Gitano, and E. Prezcier.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thierry Baudet</span> Dutch author and politician (born 1983)

Thierry Henri Philippe Baudet is a Dutch politician, author, and self-declared conspiracy theorist. He is the founder and leader of the far-right Forum for Democracy (FvD), for which he has been a member of the House of Representatives since 2017. He serves as the party's parliamentary leader. A controversial politician due to his political views, as well as his use of personal attacks against his opponents, he was physically assaulted twice while campaigning in 2023.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sigrid Kaag</span> Dutch politician, humanitarian and diplomat

Sigrid Agnes Maria Kaag is a Dutch politician, humanitarian and diplomat who is the UN Senior Humanitarian and Reconstruction Coordinator for Gaza since 2024. Kaag most recently served in the fourth Rutte cabinet as First Deputy Prime Minister of the Netherlands and Minister of Finance from 2022 to 2024 and has previously served as Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation and Minister of Foreign Affairs. She was Leader of the Democrats 66 (D66) from 2020 to 2023.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Republicanism in the Netherlands</span> Movement to abolish the countrys monarchy

Republicanism in the Netherlands is a movement that strives to abolish the Dutch monarchy and replace it with a republic. The popularity of the organised republican movement that seeks to abolish the monarchy in its entirety has been suggested to be a minority among the people of the Netherlands, according to opinion polls.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nederlandse Vereniging voor Veganisme</span> Dutch vegan association

The Nederlandse Vereniging voor Veganisme or NVV is a Dutch association which strives to promote the vegan lifestyle, and to end animal exploitation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oikofobie</span> 2013 Dutch book by Thierry Baudet

Oikofobie: De angst voor het eigene is a 2013 Dutch book written by Thierry Baudet.

Hans Renders is a professor of history and biography theory at the University of Groningen. Since 2004, he is also the head of the university's "Biography Institute".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dutch farmers' protests</span> 2019–present protest of farmers in the Netherlands

The Dutch farmers' protests are a series of demonstrations by Dutch livestock farmers, characterised by the use of tractors to block roads, and occupy public spaces. The protests were initially triggered in October 2019 by a proposal in parliament to halve the country's livestock in an attempt to limit agricultural pollution in the Netherlands, but protesting farmers have frequently told media that they are motivated by a perceived lack of respect for their profession by the Dutch populace, media and politicians. The protests combined several action groups and an amalgamation of larger goals, which included less government regulation for farmers, more air time for pro-farmer sentiments, and more policy to punish Shell and Tata Steel for their part in the emission crisis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hans Vijlbrief</span> Dutch politician (born 1963)

Johannes Alexander "Hans" Vijlbrief is a Dutch civil servant, economist, and politician, who currently serves as State Secretary for the Extractive Industries. He is a member of the social-liberal party Democrats 66 (D66).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2021 Dutch curfew riots</span> Riots against restrictions imposed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the Netherlands

The 2021 Dutch curfew riots were a series of riots in the Netherlands that initiated as protests against the government's COVID-19 prevention measures and specifically the 21:00–4:30 curfew that was introduced on 23 January 2021. The police have described the riots as the worst in the country since the 1980 coronation riots.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laurens Dassen</span> Party leader of Volt Netherlands

Laurens Antonius Josephus Maria Dassen is a Dutch politician and former banker. Dassen grew up in Knegsel, studied business administration at Radboud University and worked for ABN AMRO for six years. He has been a member of Volt Netherlands since its foundation in 2018 and was elected to the House of Representatives as his party's lijsttrekker in the 2021 general election.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nilüfer Gündoğan</span> Turkish-Dutch politician (born 1977)

Nilüfer Gündoğan is a Dutch politician, who was a member of the House of Representatives. She was elected to the House in the 2021 general election on behalf of Volt Netherlands. In February 2022, she was suspended from its parliamentary group following internal reports of unacceptable behavior. Gündoğan had before worked as a consultant and manager.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2021–2022 Dutch cabinet formation</span>

Following the Dutch general election on 17 March 2021, a cabinet formation led to the establishment of the fourth Rutte cabinet in 2022. The coalition included the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), Democrats 66 (D66), Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) and Christian Union (CU), the same parties from the preceding third Rutte cabinet. This formation process, lasting 299 days, was the longest formation in Dutch history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom de Bruijn</span> Dutch diplomat and politician

Thomas Justinus Arnout Marie de Bruijn is a Dutch diplomat, civil servant and politician who served as Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation in the third Rutte cabinet from 10 August 2021 to 10 January 2022. He is a member of the social-liberal Democrats 66 (D66) party.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">COVID-19 protests in the Netherlands</span> Protests against restrictions introduced in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the Netherlands

Protests against COVID-19 in the Netherlands were a series of protests and riots in the Netherlands against the government COVID-19 prevention measures, which were in force between 27 January 2020 and 20 May 2022, with travel restrictions lifted on 17 September 2022. The protests came to a head with the 2021 Dutch curfew riots in response to a nationwide night-time curfew between 23 January and 28 April 2021. Since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Netherlands, a number of anti-lockdown protest groups and individual protesters have shifted their attention to the ongoing, largely concurrent Dutch farmers' protests against government legislation to limit agricultural pollution by downsizing livestock production.

Jan van der Graaf was a Dutch church administrator and engineer. He was General Secretary of the Reformed Association in the Dutch Reformed Church between 1973 and 2000. Van der Graaf also wrote several books, was chief editor of the Reformed Association's magazine De Waarheidsvriend and associated with the Evangelische Omroep.

The Dutch Honorary Debts Committee Foundation is an independent interest group in the Netherlands and Indonesia for victims of Dutch colonialism in the former Dutch East Indies (1603–1949), in particular within the context of the Indonesian National Revolution of 1945–1949.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New Social Contract</span> Political party in the Netherlands

New Social Contract is a political party in the Netherlands founded and led by Pieter Omtzigt.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heart for Freedom</span> Political party in Netherlands

Heart for Freedom, formerly known as List30, is a political party in the Netherlands. The party was founded on 17 June 2021 and emerged from the blank list 30 during the 2021 House of Representatives elections when it split from Free and Social Netherlands. The party mainly profiled itself through its criticism of Dutch COVID-19 policy.

References

  1. ↑ "Viruswaarheid maakt lawaai in Den Haag: protest met potten en pannen, een persoon aangehouden". Algemeen Dagblad (AD). Retrieved 10 January 2022.
  2. ↑ Gestel, Maarten van (2020-10-09). "Wetenschapper, 'sekteleider' of 'megamafklapper': Wie is Willem Engel?". Trouw (in Dutch). Retrieved 2022-03-29.
  3. ↑ "Nederlandse coronascepticus Willem Engel aangehouden voor opruiing". De Standaard (in Flemish). 16 March 2022. Retrieved 2022-03-29.
  4. ↑ "Covid denier Willem Engel arrested for incitement" . Retrieved 16 March 2022.
  5. ↑ "Willem Engel voorlopig vrij, maar mag niet op social media". NOS (in Dutch). 30 March 2022. Retrieved 3 April 2022.
  6. ↑ "Viruswaarheid-voorman Willem Engel opnieuw aangehouden". nu.nl (in Dutch). 3 April 2022.
  7. ↑ "Coronavirus sceptic Engel found guilty of incitement to break law". 20 January 2023.
  8. ↑ Aangifte
  9. ↑ "Profiel Willem Engel". Trouw (in Dutch). 8 October 2020.
  10. ↑ "Een crises in de wetenschap, lockdown is een schande. Willem Engel en Ramon Bril". Café Weltschmerz. 2020-05-29.
  11. ↑ "Kabinet was overrompeld door uitspraak over avondklok". Het Parool . 17 February 2021.
  12. ↑ "Wie zijn de mensen achter 'Viruswaanzin', de groep die vindt dat Van Ranst de doodstraf moet krijgen?". Het Laatste Nieuws (HLN). Retrieved 10 January 2022.
  13. ↑ "Advocaat moet Twitter-account verwijderen na oproep om doodstraf voor virologen". Nieuwsblad. 4 January 2021. Retrieved 10 January 2022.
  14. ↑ "Sigrid Kaag doet aangifte tegen Willem Engel na online verspreiden van haar adres". Algemeen Dagblad (AD). Retrieved 10 January 2022.
  15. ↑ "Willem Engel derde op kieslijst Vrij en Sociaal Nederland" (in Dutch). Nederlandse Omroep Stichting. 4 January 2021. Retrieved 25 February 2021.
  16. ↑ Lammers, Esther (15 February 2021). "Chaos bij partij Willem Engel: wil het echte Vrij en Sociaal Nederland opstaan?". Trouw (in Dutch). Retrieved 24 February 2021.
  17. ↑ Kouwenhoven, Andreas; Heck, Wilmer (3 March 2022). "Virusactivisten ruilen corona in voor Poetin: 'Ik begrijp wel wat hij doet'". NRC (in Dutch). Retrieved 2022-03-04.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.