Not one of the 77 parliamentarians, senators, local and provincial councillors for the anti-Islam PVV responded to Nos questions about the party’s apparent new attitude to mosques, the public broadcaster reports.

Nos researchers contacted every elected PVV representative to find out if calls made by MP Machiel de Graaf last week for all mosques in the Netherlands to be shut down is new party policy.

The researchers also asked PVV politicians what they intended to do with the Muslims in the Netherlands. In his speech last week, De Graaf said the PVV wanted to ‘de-islam’ the country.

Just a couple of PVV politicians reacted to the request for information, both with sarcastic comments, Nos said.

The PVV manifesto includes a ban on new mosques but not the closure of existing ones.

Nos news editor-in-chief Marcel Gelauff said he is not surprised by the lack of response. ‘PVV politicians often refuse to answer questions from journalists or say they don’t wish to join in discussions. This is their good right but… discussion is one of the fundamentals of an open, democratic society’.