Senators stick by Wilders as anti-Moroccan chant row rumbles on

Senators representing the anti-immigration PVV in the upper house of the Dutch parliament continue to fully support Geert Wilders despite the anti-Moroccan chanting of last week.

Wilders has refused to apologise for leading supporters in an anti-Moroccan chant in the wake of Wednesday’s local elections.

Two MPs, one MEP and a handful of local and provincial councillors have broken ties with the PVV since Wilders asked his supporters in The Hague ‘and do you want more or fewer Moroccans in your city and in the Netherlands?’ To which the crowd chanted ‘fewer, fewer, fewer’.

‘We’ll arrange that,’ Wilders said when the chanting died down.

Wilders told a news conference on Saturday afternoon he had nothing to apologise for. ‘I spoke the truth. I said nothing wrong, I am not sorry and I am not going to apologise for anything,’ Wilders said.

No dissent

Senate leader Marcel de Graaf told BNR radio senators are completely behind Wilders. ‘We’ve had a good meeting but there were no voices of dissent,’ he said.

Asked if they supported Wilders’ style, De Graaf said: ‘That is not up to us. It is up to the lower house. We are in the senate – the chambre de réflexion. That is our role and that is what we are sticking to.’ The PVV has 10 seats in the 75-seat senate.

Meanwhile, Wilders said the PVV will not take part in a parliamentary debate in connection with the chanting which is likely to take place later this week.

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