Three Eastern European members of the European Parliament called Monday for a boycott of all Dutch products in Central and Eastern Europe, including horticulture produce, to protest against an anti-immigration party's website.

In an open letter, Polish, Bulgarian and Romanian parliamentarians say a boycott by some 100 million consumers is the right answer to the extremism of the Dutch Party for Freedom (PVV)" which launched a site about problems with Central and Eastern Europeans in the Netherlands. 

On the site 'Reporting Central and Eastern Europeans' Dutch citizens can specify complaints ranging from drunkenness to even the way vehicles have been parked.

The Eastern European parliamentarians said they also wrote the letter as a message to the Dutch government "that we are no second rank citizens and that we are a force" to be reckoned with. "If the Dutch don't want us, we don't want their products." 

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte so far refused to openly condemn the website, saying he does not want to react "each time the PVV throws red meet in the arena." 

PVV INFLUENCIAL 

Though the PVV is not part of the cabinet, the minority center-right government relies on the party's support for key policies. "No Heineken beer for me," explained Polish parliamentarian Jacek Saryusz-Wolski, who signed the letter. 

Monday's call came after officials of two organizations representing the horticulture and floriculture sectors already warned that the PVV site could harm their exports. 

The chairman of the Association of Wholesale Trade in Horticultural Products (VGB), Herman de Boon, told HortiNews in a statement that the government "should use more powerful words to distance itself" from the PVV site to avoid further harm to "what even the government described as 'the top sectors' of the Dutch economy."

The Netherlands is the world's second largest exporter of agriculture products, including flower and plants, after the United States, the government said earlier this month. 

Turnover of Dutch flowers and plants exports to Central and Eastern Europe was roughly 412 million euro last year, with most (137 million euro) going to Poland, followed by the Czech Republic with 90 million euro, according to VGB statistics. 

INDUSTRY REACTIONS

The chairman of the Dutch Federation of Agricultural and Horticulure Organizations (LTO Nederland), Albert Jan Maat, wrote the Netherlands-based Polish and Romanian ambassadors last week that his organization "distances" itself from the PVV initiative. 

He called it "an unjustified stigmatization of, among others, Polish and Romanian fellow citizens". 

Separately, Hungary's Foreign Ministry told HortiNews it was concerned about the developments in the Netherlands, adding that it and ambassadors of nine other Central and Eastern European nations have urged the Dutch government and citizens "not to abandon the long traditions of tolerance." 

With anger mounting, the European Commission, the EU's executive, is also expressing concerns over the website. 
"This is an open call to intolerance," said Europe�s justice commissioner Viviane Reding over the weekend in comments monitored by HortiNews. "The PVV website completely goes against European principles." In Europe, she said, "We support freedom. We support an open continent where citizens can move, work and study where they like." 

SOLIDARITY URGED

Reding added that, "We solve our problems by showing more solidarity, not by telling tales on fellow citizens."

PVV leader Geert Wilders, who is married to a Hungarian, has said he is "surprised" about the reactions, calling them "selective anger."

He said the site received so far at least 41,000 "complaints" about Central and Eastern Europeans.

There are some 300,000 people from Central and Eastern Europe registered in the Netherlands, many of whom are active in the hortilture and floriculture sectors. (With reporting by HortiNews' Stefan J. Bos in Budapest).

Source Hortinews