Rutte refuses to condemn PVV website after Brussels meeting

Prime minister Mark Rutte on Thursday again refused to condemn a website set up by the anti-immigration PVV where people can complain about central and eastern Europeans, following a meeting with the chairman of the European parliament.


In a joint news conference after the meeting, Schultz said both he and Rutte fully support freedom of movement within the European Union and that the PVV website shows ‘completely unacceptable behaviour’.
But when asked about the website by reporters, Rutte again stated that the website is nothing to do with the government. ‘I will not give further comments on this,’ Rutte said.
Both ways
Dutch newspapers quote Schulz as saying that Rutte wanted it both ways. ‘In the Netherlands you need the PVV to have a majority. You cannot then say what the party does has nothing to do with you,’ the NRC quoted the parliamentary leader as saying.
The issue is also likely to be on the agenda at Thursday evening’s council of ministers’ meeting.
Criminal
The website has already been condemned by European commissioners, MEPs, employers’ leaders, ambassadors and migrant labour groups.
It places newspaper headlines such as ‘Eastern Europeans, increasingly criminal’ alongside a complaints hotline.
The PVV says the 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’.

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