The Netherlands will go to the polls to vote for a new lower house of parliament in six days’ time. Here’s a round-up of Thursday’s election news.

Henri Bontenbal regrets religious school comments

CDA leader Henri Bontenbal told current affairs programme Vandaag Inside on Wednesday evening that he is sorry about comments he made earlier about homosexuality in religious schools.

After seeing footage of a pupil at a strict Protestant school who had been told he could be gay but must not behave as if he was, Bontenbal said he would not interfere in schools that teach that homosexual relationships are wrong.

Bontenbal said the freedom of organisations to run their own schools, which is guaranteed by Article 23 of the Dutch constitution, should be defended even if it clashed with other rights.

“My first reaction should have been ‘how awful for the boy’,” Bontenbal said on Wednesday evening. “Schools have a duty to provide pupils with a safe environment.”

Nevertheless, Bontenbal said that religious schools must be allowed to operate and reiterated that one article in the constitution is not more important than another.

Dilan Yesilgöz says sorry about Antifa motion

VVD leader Dilan Yesilgöz told Nieuwsuur on Wednesday evening that her party should not have supported a motion calling for a ban on the anti-fascist movement Antifa and labelling it a terrorist organisation.

Nevertheless, Yesilgöz stood by the description of Antifa as terroristic, even though there is no official organisation. “I do not consider the fact that it is not an organisation to be a reason not to tackle a school of thought which undermines democracy,” she said. “What is more important is how you act.”

Coenradie had doubts about the PVV

Former prisons minister Ingrid Coenradie, who left the far-right PVV for the far-right JA21, told television current affairs show Eva on Wednesday evening that she would not rule out working with Geert Wilders’ party but knows “how difficult” it is to work with him.

JA21 leader Joost Eerdmans has said his preferred cabinet would include the PVV. Coenradie said she did not want to ignore the millions of people who might vote for Wilders, “but on the other hand, I know just how difficult it is to work with him.”

“It is a dilemma,” she told the show.

Coenradie, who is on JA21’s list of potential MPs, previously had a public spat with Wilders over how to tackle the shortage of prison cells.