Belgian newspaper: "Who is Hasan Piker, the self-proclaimed Marxist with a Porsche?”
I thought people here might appreciate this one. Apparently Hasan is coming to Belgium this weekend for a festival organized by the PVDA, a Marxist political party considered far left even by Belgian standards. I stumbled across this article in De Standaard, one of Belgium’s main newspapers.
TRANSLATED ARTICLE:
Invited by PVDA, reviled by Theo Francken: Who is Hasan Piker, the self-proclaimed Marxist with a Porsche?
Almost every day, around 11 a.m., Hasan Piker turns on his camera and microphone and starts streaming on Twitch. The platform is primarily used by gamers to broadcast what they are doing live. But for Piker, video games are not the main focus. During his marathon streams, the influencer entertains tens of thousands of viewers with a mix of commentary on political and other news in the United States and elsewhere, videos, direct interaction with followers, details of his personal life, and so on. Piker keeps going for six to eight hours straight.
Following a Piker livestream can sometimes take some mental gymnastics. Usually, three screens are visible at once. One, of course, shows the 35-year-old himself. A second shows his internet browser, where he switches between tabs containing news broadcasts, social media posts, and other websites. A third fills up with live comments from viewers
The format gives viewers the feeling that they are seeing the world through Piker’s eyes. He offers that perspective from a room packed with social and political references. Behind him is a huge photo of Barack Obama and Queen Elizabeth II. Right beside it stands a cardboard cutout of Bernie Sanders, the senator who pushes the Democrats from the left. Small Chinese and Cuban flags hang in a cabinet. There are samurai swords. And Piker enjoys Zyn: pouches of addictive nicotine that he places under his upper lip. Along with his commentary, all these details draw attention. That attention is welcome, whether positive or negative. “I love it when my enemies hate me,” he told the British newspaper The Guardian late last year.
Piker has filled a void for the American political left: that of an engaging streaming host with access to the minds of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of voters and potential voters. He has more than 3 million followers on Twitch, 2 million on Instagram, and 1.7 million on X. He calls himself a socialist and a Marxist and advocates, among other things, higher taxes on large fortunes. With his focus on fitness and quick-witted remarks, Piker departs from the stereotype of stuffy leftists who are afraid of saying the wrong thing. Democratic Party politicians tap into his popularity. Prominent figures such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Zohran Mamdani, Bernie Sanders, and Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic Senate candidate in Michigan, have already spoken with him.
On Saturday, Piker is coming to Manifiesta in Ostend, organized by Fakto and Geneeskunde voor het Volk (Medicine for the People), two organizations founded by the far-left PVDA. Piker will talk with Belgian lawmaker Peter Mertens about “the future of the left,” and there will also be a session on “Trump, the resistance, and how to win over young people.”
Piker’s appearance at Manifiesta has drawn criticism from Defense Minister Theo Francken (N-VA). He called for the recently revised criminal code to be enforced. “Glorifying terrorism is now a criminal offense,” he wrote on X. “Good, now we can finally apply that to the Jew-hating commie festival Manifiesta, where Hasan Piker is coming this year to glorify October 7 (2023, the day Hamas invaded Israel, editor’s note).” Francken wanted the same treatment for French rapper Médine, who is also coming to Manifiesta. Footage has surfaced showing him performing the “quenelle,” an antisemitic salute.
Francken’s accusation against Piker stems from several statements the influencer has made. Among other things, he said that “Hamas is a thousand times better” than the state of Israel, which also led to him being labeled antisemitic. Activist and former Democratic politician Aaron Regunberg confronted him about this. Piker firmly denies being antisemitic and points out that he has also spoken out against antisemitism and neo-Nazis in the past. Aside from the exaggeration of “a thousand times,” however, Piker stood by the substance of his statement: “I think that at this point it is indisputable that Hamas has not committed genocide. Israel has. And I think it is very difficult to argue against that, other than by saying: this is insane, this is ridiculous, Hamas is a terrorist organization, you are a terrorist.”
Francken’s criticism came up during Piker’s livestream on Wednesday, when he pulled up old footage of the minister urinating in a planter in Brussels. Piker called him a “pissboy” who, he said, takes his cues from US President Donald Trump.
That quick counterpunch is typical of Piker, who was born in New Jersey but grew up in Istanbul and Ankara before eventually attending college in the United States. In 2018, he decided to start streaming on Twitch. Since then, the platform has suspended him repeatedly for extreme remarks. On one occasion, it was because he used “cracker” as an insult for white people. His most notorious statement dates to 2019, when he said that America had deserved 9/11. Afterward, he called that language inappropriate and said he should have used more precise wording.
Since starting on Twitch, Piker has expanded his reach and media empire year after year. He now has a luxury home in West Hollywood and his own clothing line, “Ideologie.” His income comes from subscriptions, advertising, and merchandise. Piker’s appeal lies partly in his combination of apparent contradictions: he has a toned physique, calls himself an anti-Zionist, advocates a wealth tax, and drives a Porsche Taycan. “It wasn’t the flashiest model I could afford,” he told a reporter from The New Yorker about his car. “But yeah, I admit it, it’s a fucking Porsche.”
Posted Sep 10, 2026, 7:19 PM UTC