EUROPE: Dutch website causes stir in Central Europe

Autor

10 lutego 2012

Dutch right-wing politician Geert Wilders has launched a website, inviting people to denounce Polish, Romanian and Bulgarian nationals causing 'nuisance’ to the country’s society. Sofia, Bucharest and Warsaw reacted with outrage. The EurActiv network in Central Europe reports.

Wilders’ Freedom party (PVV) has already gathered thousands of denunciations since it launched a website this week, asking Dutch citizens to report nuisance, pollution, problems related to housing or simply competition on the job market, caused by Europeans citizens coming from Poland, Romania and Bulgaria.

“Are they causing you problems? Or did you lose your job to a Pole, Bulgarian, Romanian or other Central of East European? We would love to hear from you,” reads the introductory statement on the website.

The websites says: „Do you have trouble with EU nationals? Or have you lost your job because of a Pole, Bulgarian, Romanian or other Central or Eastern European? We would like to hear. The Freedom Party has a platform on this website to report your troubles. We will check these complaints and submit the results to the Minister of Social Affairs and Employment.”

The launching of the site has stirred considerable emotion in the three countries mentioned. A spokesman from the Polish Embassy in the Netherlands said Wilders’ depiction of Polish workers as “polluting the Dutch job market” was insulting.

The Embassy lodged a complaint about the site, but the Dutch ombudsman said he does not intend to consider the complaint because the actions of political parties do not fall within his competence.