American lobbyists make large donations to a foundation set up by the anti-immigration PVV, Hero Brinkman, the MP who left the party on Tuesday, told a television talk show on Tuesday evening.

Brinkman said he could not rule out the money being used to pay for Geert Wilders’ defence on racial hatred charges but declined to comment further on what the money had been spent on. Nor would he comment on the size of the donations.
The PVV is thought to generate significant funding from Israeli and far-right supporters in the US.
No members
Because the PVV has no members, it does not receive government subsidies to run the campaigning side of its operations and relies instead on donations. The parliamentary party is fully funded by the state.
Brinkman also gave the Pauw & Witteman show more information about the PVV’s website to collect complaints about eastern and central European nationals. One of the reasons he stepped down from the party was that he disagreed with the website.
Brinkman, a former policeman, said the website had recieved at least 100,000 hits, half of which were complaints about the site itself. Only a fraction of the total were actual complaints, the MP said.
Democracy
Brinkman, an MP for the PVV since 2006, told a news conference he had quit the party because he can no longer accept the lack of democracy within the organisation and the way different groups in society are constantly being singled out for criticism.
His decision means the ruling alliance – the minority cabinet plus PVV – no longer has a majority in parliament, although Brinkman said he will remain an independent MP and would continue to support the government.
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Hero Brinkman quits PVV, opposition calls for new elections