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Pressure mounts on Rutte to condemn 'discriminatory' PVV website

Prime Minister Mark Rutte is coming under pressure to speak out against an anti-immigration website set up by Geert Wilders’s Freedom Party which has sparked a furious response across Europe.

The site, meldpuntmiddenenoosteuropeanen.nl, has been condemned by European politicians and ambassadors from Eastern European nations for discriminating against Poles and people from new EU nations.

It invites Dutch citizens to report incidents of anti-social behaviour by Eastern Europeans, as well as registering complaints that Poles or Bulgarians have ‘stolen their jobs’.

The PVV claims the site is a success and has attracted 30,000 replies in its first week. However, it is unclear how many of the complaints are genuine, as spoof websites and Facebook pages have sprung up urging people to protest by sending in satirical ‘complaints’.

European justice commissioner Viviane Reding condemned the site at the weekend as an “open call to intolerance”.

She said: “In Europe we support freedom. We solve our problems by showing more solidarty, not by telling tales on our fellow citizens.”

In Parliament on Tuesday, Rutte defied renewed calls to distance his party and the cabinet from the PVV, which has signed a deal to underwrite the minority centre-right coalition government.

A former chairman of the lower house of Parliament and senior member of Rutte’s Liberal Party (VVD) added his voice to those calling for Rutte to publicly censure Wilders.

Writing in De Volkskrant, Frans Weisglas said the PVV’s website was “pure discrimination” and in breach of Article 1 of the Dutch constitution.

“This is not a serious attempt by the PVV to tackle potential problems, but a way of stigmatising and discriminating against a new group of people,” he said. “After Muslims and Greeks, now it’s the turn of the Poles. Who’s next?”

He added that he had objected to the idea of a deal the with the PVV at his party’s congress in 2010, when the idea was floated before members.

“Mark Rutte replied that unacceptable statements and actions by Wilders and the PVV would be denounced,” said Weisglas. “Since then I have seen precious little evidence of this.”

Source: De Volkskrant: Rutte wil ook in Kamer niet op 'Polen-meldpunt' reageren

Read previous story: ‘Has a Pole stolen your job?’ Ambassador condemns Wilders’s ‘shop-a-migrant’ website