PVV anti-Pole website is an ‘open call to intolerance’: Brussels

A website set up by the anti-immigration PVV to report problems with central and eastern Europeans in the Netherlands is an ‘open call to intolerance’, Europe’s justice commissioner Viviane Reding said on Friday evening.


‘The PVV website completely goes against European principles,’ Reding is quoted as saying by the Volkskrant.
‘In Europe, we support freedom. We support an open continent where citizens can move, work and study where they will,’ Reding said. ‘We solve our problems by showing more solidarity, not by telling tales on fellow citizens.’
The website, launched on Wednesday, asks people to report complaints about central and eastern European immigrants in the Netherlands.
Jobs
‘Do you have problems with people from central and eastern Europe? Have you lost your job to a Pole, Bulgarian, Romanian or other eastern European? We want to know,’ the website states.
‘Europe can get stuffed,’ Wilders said in a reaction to Reding’s statement. ‘We’ve had more than 32,000 reports. The website is a hit.’
The commission had originally been due to respond on Monday.
Prime minister
Prime minister Mark Rutte has so far refused to comment on the website. Asked to react to the initiative during a Thursday evening debate on the European Union, Rutte said it is not up to him to comment on positions taken by individual political parties.
In addition, the prime minister said he does not feel it concerns him because the minority cabinet does not have an alliance with the PVV in terms of European affairs.
The PVV has an alliance with the minority government, which it supports on economic policy in return for tougher immigration rules.
Employers
Earlier on Thursday, employers’ chief Bernard Wientjes urged the cabinet to distance itself from the initiative.
The website is ‘a form of demonisation’, Wientjes told a news conference. ‘This contributes to a fear of foreigners, which is not what we should have in this open country,’ Nos television quoted Wientjes as saying.
Should the prime minister take a stand on the PVV website? Take part in our poll.
Earlier stories
Prime minister refuses to condemn PVV website
Trouble with Limburgers of Belgians? Complaint websites spring up
Employers leader urges government to distance itself from PVV website
Romania wants action on PVV website
Problems with Poles? Report them to us, says new PVV website

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