Prime minister Mark Rutte continued to ignore calls to distance himself from the PVV’s controversial website on Thursday, despite a large majority vote in the European parliament in favour of a motion brandng the website ‘discriminatory and malicious’, reports news agency ANP.

The motion also calls on prime minister Rutte to distance his cabinet from the PVV initiative. ‘The Dutch government must not close its eyes to the fact that PVV policy goes against the constitutional values of the European Union,’ the motion says.
However, in a briefing to parliament, Rutte says the government cannot comment on the individual actions of parliamentary parties, reports the Nos website. The PVV website does not reflect the opinion of the government, he repeats.
‘It is for a judge to decide if a political party oversteps the law,’ Rutte told parliament.
Complaints
The anti-immigration PVV set up its website in early February as a place for people to register their complaints about central and eastern Europeans living in the Netherlands.
Two days later, Mark Rutte refused to condemn the site, saying it was a matter for the PVV and not the government. The PVV has an alliance with the minority government on economic policy.
Since then there have been repeated calls for Rutte to distance himself from the website and to demand it is discontinued. There have been complaints about the content from European commissioners, MEPs, employers’ leaders, ambassadors and migrant labour groups.
In early March, the European parliament began working on a motion condemning the website.
The PVV maintains its aim is to gain insight into ‘problems caused by central and eastern Europeans in terms of crime, alcoholism, drugs use, dumping household waste and prostitution’.