[4][5][6] In 2015, when DENK was established, Van Baarle started working as a policy officer for its House caucus and as director of its think tank Statera.

[9] His party won four seats in the municipal council, while lijstduwer Tunahan Kuzu received almost twice as many votes as Van Baarle.

[12] In the council, where he served as caucus leader, Van Baarle successfully proposed a ban on disturbances by the street use of laughing gas together with Livable Rotterdam.

[22][23] In July 2023 – shortly after the collapse of the fourth Rutte cabinet had triggered a November 2023 general election – Farid Azarkan announced that he would leave politics.

Van Baarle succeeded him as parliamentary leader on 3 August, and he announced his intention to become DENK's lead candidate in a video featuring Azarkan.

Van Baarle also said the Dutch cabinet should highlight that cutting off the supply of water, electricity, and food to the Gaza Strip constituted a war crime.

[28][29] Online, his party spread maps of Israel including the occupied Palestinian territory fully covered by the flag of Palestine.

A slim House majority supported a motion calling the slogan incitement to violence despite an earlier legal ruling deeming it not illegal.