The anti-immigration party PVV has expelled MP Louis Bontes who has been highly critical of the party’s finances and lack of democracy in a string of media interviews.

The decision is supported by the entire group of 14 remaining PVV MPs, party leader Geert Wilders said.

Wilders said Bontes is welcome to criticise the party ‘but not via 95 different sources’. In addition, his claims that the party has wrongly spent parliamentary cash do not add up, Wilders said.

‘He has not only damaged my trust in him, but that of the entire group. This is why we have had to take this sad decision,’ Wilders said.

Democracy

Bontes, who stood down as a member of the parliamentary party’s finance committee earlier this month, is the latest in a string of parliamentarians to leave the PVV after a conflict over the leadership.

In March 2012, Hero Brinkman stepped down after failing to persuade the PVV to become more democratic and open. The PVV has no members apart from Wilders and decisions are taken by a core inner group.

In July 2012, two other MPs, Marcial Hernandez and Wim Korenoeven, quit. They, too, cited the lack of democracy.

Earlier stories
‘PVV needs more transparency about finances’
PVV wrongly spent €80000 from its parliamentary budget: NRC