Members of the Dutch Moroccan community are opposed to the appointment of Guido van Woerkom as the new national ombudsman because of comments he made about taxi drivers several years ago.

They are calling on MPs to vote against Van Woerkom’s appointment on Tuesday. Van Woerkom is currently head of the Dutch motoring organisation ANWB.

‘He does not enjoy the support of a large part of the community and is unsuitable for the role’ a spokesman for Moroccan community platform SMN said on Saturday.

Taxi

Van Woerkom told a conference of lease car managers in 2010 that he would prefer his wife did not take taxis because the driver could be Moroccan.

Van Woerkom had explained that he felt his wife should pay less road tax because she only drives 4,000 km a year. When a member of the audience suggested she take a taxi instead, the ANWB chief said he would prefer she didn’t, because the driver may be Moroccan.

He later apologised, saying he only wanted to draw attention to the different qualities within the taxi sector, rather than to insult people from other cultures.