Prime minister Dick Schoof has insisted that his cabinet supports Amsterdam’s mayor Femke Halsema after she was attacked on social media by Geert Wilders in the wake of Monday’s pro-Palestinian demonstrations in the capital.
But Schoof declined to criticise Wilders directly for suggesting Halsema should be removed from the country for allowing the protests to go ahead.
“Get that scum out of the country. And Halsema can go with them,” Wilders posted on X, better known as Twitter, after 320 people were arrested on Monday evening.
Halsema ordered police to end the demonstration after fireworks were let off and some protestors tried to make their way to Dam Square, where the official commemoration of the victims of last year’s attacks by Hamas was taking place.
Schoof would not respond directly to Wilders’s tweet when approached by RTL Nieuws on Tuesday and couched his support for Halsema in a general statement of praise for the country’s mayors.
“I never react to tweets from anyone, but in a general sense I’d like to say that I and the cabinet support every mayor in the Netherlands,” the prime minister said.
“They make difficult decisions every day and that support counts for Halsema as well.”
Sharon Dijksma, the Labour (PvdA) mayor of Utrecht and chair of the local government association VNG, called Wilders’ tweet “irresponsible” and called on ministers to distance themselves from his remarks.
“This undermines respect for mayors and is out of all proportion,” Dijksma wrote on Instagram. “The cabinet must distance itself from this statement.”
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