The PVV’s candidate to lead the PVV local election campaign has been dropped by the party after just one day, following ‘unacceptable new information’.

Géza Hegedüs, described as a former soldier with a Hungarian background, has been unveiled by far-right watchdog Kafka as having ‘extreme right-wing ideas’ and close connections to Dutch far-right group Erkenbrand.

He told Erkenbrand in a podcast last year that ‘the big mistake which is made in nationalist circles, and you see it with Geert as well, is that everything revolves around the Mohammedan,’ he said. ‘But it is about more than the Mohammedan. It is about non-white, non European peoples. That makes it tricky.’

In addition, a message is circulating on Facebook in which he congratulated holocaust denier David Irving on his birthday, saying ‘you really have my respect’. His personal Facebook page, with texts in Hungarian, is full of photographs of marching soldiers.

Wilders described the claims about Hegedüs, who is a dual national, as ‘unacceptable and inappropriate for a PVV politician.’

‘I deeply regret this,’ he said. ‘If we had known, Mr Hegedüs would never have been placed on the list.’

Wilders geflankeerd door de lijsttrekker van de PVV in Rotterdam rechts en nummer 2 links van hem. En op de achtergrond staat Kuzu met zijn aanhangers… pic.twitter.com/s1ctfa5lXi

— robert bas (@robertpbas) December 14, 2017