Willem Engel
Politics
Politics
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### 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").

Engel's organization claims that corruption in the government has ruined some people, and that the number of deaths from [COVID\-19](/wiki/COVID-19 "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. The measure was accepted by the [House of Representatives](/wiki/House_of_Representatives_%28Netherlands%29 "House of Representatives (Netherlands)") on 18 February 2021 and by the [Senate](/wiki/Senate_%28Netherlands%29 "Senate (Netherlands)") 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; one year later, in January 2022, Engel shared the home address of [Sigrid Kaag](/wiki/Sigrid_Kaag "Sigrid Kaag"), leader of the Dutch [Democrats 66](/wiki/Democrats_66 "Democrats 66") party and finance minister, on [Twitter](/wiki/Twitter "Twitter"). Kaag reported this to the Dutch police and Engel's Twitter account was temporarily suspended.

### Vrij en Sociaal Nederland

In January 2021 Engel joined , a new political party that looked to get seats in the House of Representatives during the [2021 Dutch general election](/wiki/2021_Dutch_general_election "2021 Dutch general election"). He was placed third on the party list. 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](/wiki/Heart_for_Freedom "Heart for Freedom").

### 2022 Ukraine invasion

Right after the [2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine](/wiki/2022_Russian_invasion_of_Ukraine "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](/wiki/Ukraine "Ukraine").


Does the Dutch government have a history of passing laws that favor their interests?