Dutch Jewish lobby group CIDI has criticised Geert Wilders for ‘compromising his principles’ for working with anti-semitic parties such as France’s Front National and Austria’s FPÖ.

CIDI director Esther Voet told the Telegraaf it is worrying that Wilders has changed his position. ‘He has always said he will not join up with the extreme right but now this is happening,’ she said. ‘It is a slippery slope.’

Wilders has always taken a strongly pro-Israel line and has good contacts with Jewish groups in the US. He is thought to raise considerable funding from Israel.

Photographs

Former PVV parliamentarians Wim Kortenoeven and Louis Bontes confirmed that Wilders has changed his position. PVV supporters were previously stopped from appearing on photographs with Front National members because it would damage the party.

Wilders told the Telegraaf he is ‘not afraid’ of being lumped together with the extreme right and refused further comment, the paper says.

Wilders is hoping to form an alliance of anti-EU parties after the European elections later this month. These include the Front National, Austria’s FPO and the Belgian nationalists Vlaams Belang.

Father

Front National founder Jean-Marie Le Pen has convictions for anti-semitism and has described the World War II gas chambers as a detail.

Current leader Marine Le Pen has distanced herself from her father but he remains honorary chairman and is part of the Front National’s European election campaign.

Austria’s FPÖ is said to have neo-Nazi ties.