The anti-Islam PVV in Limburg has sacked one of its provincial councillors for describing a Labour party colleague as ‘a piece of sicked-up halal meat made from a Turkish pig’.

The comment was made a year ago by PVV number two Cor Bosman in an email to 20 supporters after Labour councillor Selçuk Öztürk gave an interview to a local magazine.
The decision to sack Bosman was taken at an emergency meeting on Friday morning after news of the email leaked to the local press. ‘We sincerely regret Bosman’s upsetting comments,’ the party said after the meeting in a statement.
According to Limburg media reports, the incident led to the resignation of another PVV councillor last summer. He was angry the local party had not taken action against Bosman, and that local leader Laurence Stassens continued to back him.
Sarcasm
Bosman told reporters he had not yet been formally informed of the decision and had a weekend to think things through. The email was meant to be sarcastic, he said. ‘If I had wanted to be insulting I would have written it differently.’
This is not the first time Bosman and the PVV in Limburg have been hit by controversy.
Last year it emerged that Bosman is one of two PVV provincial councillors in Limburg who hires himself as his own party worker. According to the Volkskrant, he earns €13,000 a year for his work as councillor plus €57,000 a year as party support staff.
Biggest party
The PVV became the biggest party in the province after the March 2011 elections with over 20% of the vote.
Bosman’s sacking and the resignation of another councillor means the party now controls eight of the 47 council seats. It is not yet clear if Bosman will leave the council or continue as an independent.
Last summer, PVV MP Raymond de Roon described the Turkish prime minister Recep Erdogan as an ‘Islamic monkey’. And party leader Geert Wilders told a news conference in London in 2010 Erdogan is a ‘total freak’.