Justice minister David van Weel, a minister on behalf of the VVD, will attend Monday’s informal EU ministerial meeting in Budapest, despite his party’s support for a boycott.

There are important issues on the agenda, and the Netherlands has therefore decided to attend, prime minister Dick Schoof told broadcaster NOS. He had said earlier the Netherlands will decide on a meeting-by-meeting basis whether or not to send ministers to Hungary during the country’s six-month presidency.

The European Commission and six member states are boycotting informal meetings because of Viktor Orbán’s “peace mission” visits to Moscow and Beijing.

Coalition parties VVD and NSC have called on the Netherlands to join the boycott and give a “powerful signal” of disapproval over Orbán’s actions.

“If it is in the Netherlands’ interest to go, then we will go unless the minister is on holiday,” Schoof told NOS on Thursday evening.

Individual coalition parties are free to dissent, the prime minister said. “The government governs and parliament controls,” he said.

Van Weel plans to speak to Hungarian NGOs and academics striving to support the rule of law in Hungary,” a justice ministry spokesman said. He also plans to talk to colleagues about organised crime.

The NRC said in an editorial on Friday that the Netherlands should not be supporting Orbán’s “efforts to undermine the European Union”.

“The bone of contention is the close relationship between PVV leader Geert Wilders and Orbán,” the paper said. “Recently, Wilders stood on the same stage with him in Budapest, and in the European parliament Orbán e and his party Fidesz have set up a joint group with the de facto aim of eroding the EU from within.

“The VVD and NSC want prime minister Dick Schoof, like his predecessor Mark Rutte, to remain critical of Orbán. The PVV, with BBB in its wake, does not think this is necessary. Unfortunately, team Orbán has achieved a resounding first victory in the Netherlands.”