Dutch PVV, Geert Wilders’ anti-immigration party, launched Wednesday ( February 8 ) a website soliciting racist complaints about central and eastern European immigrants - Poles, Romanians, Bulgarians, in the Netherlands, according to Dutchnews.nl.

The party’s website includes headlines such as "Eastern Europeans, increasingly criminal". Moreover, the websites states: "Do you have problems with people from central and eastern Europe? Have you lost your job to a Pole, Bulgarian, Romanian or other eastern European? We want to know," writes Dutchnews.nl.

The website aims to paint a picture of "problems caused by central and eastern Europeans in terms of crime, alcoholism, drug use, dumping household waste and prostitution", said PVV parliamentarian Ino van de Besselaar. According to some media reports, the Polish embassy in the Netherlands is "not pleased" with the initiative, Dutchnews.nl goes on.

Romania’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs asked the Romanian embassy in the Hague to urge the authorities to take measures against the website as it is discriminatory and violates European rules.

The Romanian president Traian Basescu recently accused The Netherlands of “abuse” over opposition to Romania’s inclusion in the Schengen area. Speaking at a conference marking five years in the EU, Basescu said Romania should already be in the visa free, open border area and that his country had met all the conditions for membership.

Romania and Bulgaria were originally to be included in the Schengen area in 2011, but opposition from several EU states held up the process. Although the rest of the EU has since approved Romania and Bulgaria’s application, The Netherlands has maintained resistance to the proposal.

Read more here.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com

(photo source: Sxc.hu)