DefaulterA resident who no longer wants to be part of Dutch society has been punished by the judge. Paolo P. from Utrecht must pay thousands of euros in rent arrears and had to leave his rental home within fourteen days, according to a judgment published this week.
The man, a self-declared sovereign, stated at the hearing that no one has the authority to decide on him, as a ‘living man’. Except the judge. The day after the verdict, around the holidays, P. was arrested for threats and coercion. His pre-trial detention has been extended by 90 days.
What are sovereigns?
Sovereigns or autonomists, such as Paolo P. from Utrecht, believe that they do not have to pay taxes, rent and other assessments because they do not have a ‘contract’ with the Dutch state. The group consists of at least ten thousand citizens. According to the General Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD), the autonomists are part of a broader movement that is guilty of ‘anti-institutional extremism’. They have the worldview that an ‘evil elite’ is in power that wants to oppress citizens.
At the same time, they think they can make use of all kinds of rights, such as the right to live. Housing association Portaal, with homes in Arnhem, Leiden and Utrecht, among others, has been struggling for almost a year with Paolo P., a man who decided overnight to no longer pay rent. He keeps that up for months. From May 2023, P. will only transfer ten percent of the total rent, an amount of about 60 euros per month.
Portaal sends several letters and eventually the bailiff to him to evict him from his house, but the man does not answer. It eventually comes to a lawsuit.
‘The Netherlands is a company’
P. states that no one is authorized to decide about him, as a ‘living man’. He says that the rules in the Netherlands are not valid and that the government has no power whatsoever. The Netherlands would be a company that cannot make laws, but only business rules. Furthermore, there is no negotiation with him as a living man. According to P., Portaal is a non-profit foundation, but which does make a profit on his home. He believes that he has paid Portaal far too much for years, and in his opinion the rental agreement is therefore no longer valid.
The man, who was clearly misled by misinformation, is given a hearing in court. Everyone who lives or stays in the Netherlands must comply with the rules applicable in the Netherlands, the judge said in a letter judgment published this week. He points out to P. the rental agreement he concluded in 2009. In that agreement, the man agreed to pay an amount of 600 euros per month. The fact that Portaal is a foundation does not change this. A foundation is allowed to earn money and make a profit, as long as the profit is used to achieve the foundation’s purpose. That is the case with Portaal, the judge ruled.
‘This is not a free pass’
Moreover, if the man no longer wanted to be bound by the contract, he could have terminated it and had the house vacated. P. did not do that. By not paying more rent, the man has not fulfilled his obligations. He still has no plans to do so, he said at the hearing. But he can’t get away with that. The judge orders him to pay 3,300 euros in rent arrears. In addition, he must leave his home within fourteen days.
In a last desperate attempt, the man points to an article in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states that ‘everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and his family, including included (…) housing (….)’. An important human right, the judge acknowledges, but ‘not a license to live somewhere without providing the agreed quid pro quo’.
Arrests
A few days after the verdict, Paolo P. was arrested by the police together with his partner Roeland M. and Paolo P.. “We started an investigation after we received information that the two men had threatened a bailiff. One of the suspects has also been arrested for incitement because he allegedly posted threatening and inflammatory messages on social media that incited violence,” the police in Utrecht reported. During a search, ‘a possible firearm was seized’.
Roeland M. is the administrator of a Telegram group in which theories are shared as to why the Dutch state would have ‘no mandate’. In addition, he has been acting for some time as an advisor to (novice) self-employed people who are getting into trouble because they do not pay their bills. At the beginning of November, he tried from the doorway of a house in Nijmegen to prevent the resident from being evicted from his house by a bailiff and the police. That resident had built up a rental debt. Roeland M. stated that ‘the deportation order was false’. “The judiciary is unauthorized, all police officers are unauthorized.”
Both men are still in custody. They spent New Year’s Eve in jail. The threat to the bailiff took place in June 2023 in Amsterdam. “Furthermore, this is an ongoing investigation and we will not make any substantive statements about it. We can tell more when the investigation is completed,” the Public Prosecution Service said.
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2024-01-12 11:00:00
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