The decision by the Dutch Liberal party VVD to form a coalition with the far-right PVV may have consequences for the party’s role in Europe, it emerged on Thursday.

The VVD is a member of the Renew group in the European parliament, alongside D66, Volt and liberal parties from across the EU. Renew recently reconfirmed its opposition to any form of alliance with far right parties at any level of government, a position emphasised by the group leader Valerie Hayer on Thursday.

“I would like to express my total disapproval and deep concern about the discussions on the new Dutch coalition government,” she said on social media. “The PVV is opposed to everything that we defend in terms of the values, the rule of law, the economy, the climate and of course Europe.”

Hayer said she had called a meeting of the Renew group for June 10 to discuss the crisis. “The compromise with the extreme right is not acceptable. I have always firmly opposed it and I will continue to do this in the European parliament,” she said.

Other Renew members have also sounded the alarm.

The VVD is currently the biggest Dutch party in Europe and campaign leader Malik Azmani said last month the threat of a European parliament with the far right in the driving seat is “real”.

Azmani, who opted not to stand for the leadership of the Renew group in the European parliament because his party was in coalition talks with the PVV, said that the far right “want to weaken European, not strengthen it.” 

Meanwhile, in the lower house of parliament, chairman Martin Bosma tried to stop Laurens Dassens, an MP for Volt, from using the term “extreme right” to describe the PVV. Bosma is himself a member of the party.

“That is a comparison with national socialism and goes too far,” Bosma said.

Dassens responded by saying the chairman was talking “nonsense”. “If for years you have been casting suspicion on judges, calling journalists scum and saying that a large group of people born in the Netherlands do not belong, then you are a right wing radical party,” he said.