Prime minister says anti-Islam PVV should support Afghan mission

Prime minister Mark Rutte has called on the anti-Islam PVV to support the cabinet’s plans to send a 545-strong police training mission to Afghanistan.


The PVV, which supports the government on economic policy, is opposed to the new mission and it is extremely unclear whether a majority of MPs will support it.
If anyone should support the mission, it should be the PVV because the party wants to counteract Muslim extremism, Rutte told tv current affairs show Buitenhof.
The prime minister said it is ‘very noteworthy’ that the PVV is against the project, which would be under both EU and Nato auspices.
He also said it is strange that the PVV, Labour and the Socialist Party are not even prepared to look in detail at the cabinet’s plans.
Blunder
On Friday, PVV leader Geert Wilders described the plan as ‘the biggest blunder this cabinet has made to date’. And he criticised the timing of the decision-making process, which comes just six weeks before the provincial elections.
Polls show a majority of the population oppose the mission.
The aim of the mission, which will run until mid 2014, is to train Afghan police officers in the northern province of Kunduz.

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