The far-right PVV, currently the biggest party in the 150-seat Dutch parliament with 37 MPS, has a poor attendance record when compared with other parties and some parliamentarians have not yet said anything during debate, according to RTL Nieuws.

This year there have been 493 plenary and commission debates, which were attended by the main opposition party GroenLinks-PvdA on all but one occasion. The PVV, by contrast, missed 58 sessions, RTL said.

In addition, five PVV MPs – Vincent van den Born, Peter Smitskam, Eric Esser, Robert Rep and Chris Faddegon – have not given their first, or maiden, speech since taking up their seats.

The absence of PVV MPs has raised eyebrows among other parties, who have questioned why they are paid €141,000 a year plus expenses and other payments.

PVV leader Geert Wilders said his team has to “work themselves into the job, read, and build up their experience.”

“That takes some time,” he said. “Some get to grips with it quickly, some take longer.”

Smitskam told RTL he would make his maiden speech next week and Van den Born said his role is that of “liaison” and that he does “internal jobs for the parliamentary and the national party”. Others declined to comment on their silence, when asked.

Unhappy

RTL’s political reporter Irene de Kruif said that some MPs are barely being used at all by the party. “There are rumours that Wilders is not happy about all his new PVV members,” she said.

The PVV has no members and no formal internal structure, but nevertheless, “a year after the election, the PVV is lagging behind the other big parties.”