Marianne Thieme, leader of the animal rights party in parliament, has been heavily criticised for her comments comparing the Dutch government with that of the Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe.

Thieme told a radio programme that the fact the Dutch government does not want a new referendum on the restructuring of the European Union is paramount to ignoring the wishes of Dutch citizens in the same way as Mugabe is ignoring the wishes of his people in Zimbabwe.