MEPs Ask Dutch Govt to Condemn Xenophobic Site

A close up view of a page of a website set up by the right-wing Dutch Freedom Party (PVV). File photo

Following in the footsteps of the Council of Europe, the European Parliament has demanded that the Dutch government distance itself from the notorious anti-immigration website created by the far-right PVV party of Geert Wilders.

All main groups have condemned the Freedom Party's site and asked that Dutch authorities probe its legality.

The website is widely regarded as xenophobic because it solicits and disseminates negative reports about citizens of central and eastern European countries working in the Netherlands.

The debates have lasted for over an hour. The Dutch EU Affairs Minister has noted that the internet is a main tool for exchange of information and there should be no discrimination there, while Viviane Reding, Vice-President of the European Commission, and Commissioner on Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship, has stressed that the Commission is seriously alarmed by the Dutch site.

MEPs will vote Thursday on a resolution on the site.

The site, titled "Complaints about Central and Eastern Europeans," boasts slogans such as "Do you have problems with people from Central and Eastern Europe?" and "Have you lost your job because of a Pole, a Bulgarian, a Romanian? We want to know." It also displays media headlines reporting how Eastern Europeans commit more and more crime.

The PVV party's website has drawn wide criticism from Central and Eastern Europeans, including Bulgaria's Foreign Ministry and the country's MEPs. Reding previously described it as a call for intolerance.

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