AMSTERDAM – Dutch anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders disciplined a party member yesterday over a sex scandal but stopped short of expelling him from the party, avoiding a crisis for the minority government it supports.
The right-leaning minority coalition, formed last month after elections in June produced no clear winner, is seen as fragile and likely to be short-lived.
Mr Wilders’s Freedom Party (PVV) has agreed to support the Liberal-Christian Democrat coalition in parliament, providing it with the thinnest of majorities needed to pass spending cuts in exchange for a tougher stance on immigration.
Expulsion of the MP, Eric Lucassen, a Freedom Party member and former soldier, would have deprived the coalition of its majority.
Dutch media reported last week that Mr Lucassen had been disciplined by the military for having an affair with a subordinate, and that separately, his neighbours had reported him to the police for assault and intimidation.
Mr Wilders dismissed Mr Lucassen from the defence and communities portfolios yesterday, but said Mr Lucassen would stay on as a member of the parliamentary faction. “Lucassen was not convicted of [making] threats,” his party said.
It added that Mr Lucassen had breached military rules regarding sexual relationships with subordinates, and that the party had not known this when he became an MP.
Mr Lucassen told Dutch television he was ashamed he had embarrassed Mr Wilders, and thanked the party leader for giving him a second chance. He apologised to his former neighbours for his behaviour, and said he should not have had a relationship with a woman in his battalion. – (Reuters)