A contender vying for a seat in the Dutch parliament was escorted from a televised debate when authorities confused him with a widely known, audacious animal rights demonstrator.
Kevin Nuijten holds a remarkable likeness to activist Peter Janssen, who has risen to notoriety in the Netherlands for intruding on events wearing minimal attire – simply a black pair of underpants.
The prior Thursday, Janssen staged his most recent demonstration on a television program fronted by Dutch-American journalist Eva Jinek, suddenly appearing behind the host while exclaiming: ‘The focus is constantly on humans, but we must also address animal welfare.’
Consequently, security personnel were carefully monitoring crowds at political gatherings as the national elections approached this Wednesday.
This situation presented a problem for Nuijten, a candidate from the right-leaning JA21 party who was present among the audience at the Debate of the South in Tilburg on Saturday evening.
Security personnel at the studio site where the discussion was occurring escorted a perplexed Nuijten out of the building and into a police vehicle.
Only afterward – once their detainee insisted they verify his identity online – did they realize their mistake.
Nuijten conveyed through a party representative that he had ‘pleasant dialogue’ with the officers, noting that it took roughly 15 minutes to convince them of his true identity.
Opmerkelijk: bij Debat van het Zuiden halen beveiligers een man uit het publiek die lijkt op de vegan streaker (die deze week talkshow Eva verstoorde). Maar het blijkt een kandidaat-Kamerlid van JA21, Kevin Nuijten. Na uitgebreide controle mag ie weer terug in de zaal. pic.twitter.com/WOZLvCepoz
— Peter Winterman (@PeterNieuwsuur) October 25, 2025
Renzo Veestra, the leading editor of the media company broadcasting the debate, remarked: ‘We received information from the DKDB [Dutch diplomatic police], who had been informed by a journalist from a nationwide broadcaster, confirming a “100 percent” match between the man and the vegan streaker.
‘Therefore, he was escorted out.’
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As a gesture of goodwill, Nuijten received a complimentary beer and a company-branded scarf following the incident.
Janssen, aged 40, has been garnering attention with his pro-animal welfare actions for over 15 years.
Back in 2009, he was taken into custody on suspicion of releasing approximately 3,000 mink from a Dutch fur production facility.
At that juncture, he had previously disrupted an ice hockey game, a tennis event, and a road race – and was central to a famous occurrence on comedian Paul de Leeuw’s program, during which the host responded by removing Nuijten’s underwear.
Sourse: metro.co.uk
