The Netherlands will elect a new government on March 15 and the campaign is well under way. Here’s a round-up of the latest news from the campaign trail, with 18 days to go.

One PVV event cancelled

Geert Wilders’ decision to cancel all public campaigning by the PVV because of the security scare has so far affected just one event, writes Emilie van Outeren in the NRC. This weekend, Wilders and team were due to hand out flyers in Volendam, a PVV stronghold and beloved location of foreign media who want to film Wilders in action.

‘If Wilders is safe anywhere it is in Volendam,’ one disappointed fan told the Volkskrant.

Meanwhile, justice minister Stef Blok has assured Wilders he is completely safe despite the apparent leaks. Wilders in turn, says it is not just about him, but about the safety of the 100 to 200 PVV supporters who come to his rallies.

Minister threatened

The German born minister of the Maranatha church in The Hague says he was threatened by supporters of Thierry Baudet’s Forum for Democracy party during a debate in the church earlier this week.

A large group of Baudet’s fans arrived at the venue by bus and proceed to disrupt the debate, minister Axel Wicke told the AD. ‘The atmosphere was intimidating… when I said I regarded both Christians and Muslims as my brothers, I was laughed at,’ he said. Then, after the break he was approached by a group of them who said as a ‘dirty German’ he would be ‘kicked out’.

Baudet has since said that he was not aware of the incidents and that he distanced himself from them.

Denk under fire

Denk campaign leader Tunahan Kuzu has come under fire for suggesting that doctors are quicker to ‘turn off the switch’ when faced with elderly ethnic minority patients. Kuzu said in an online Q&A session that language barriers are largely to blame.

‘The doctor says, “blink” and if that does not happen the doctor says “there is no point. Turn them off”. It would be better if they used Turkish doctors,’ Kuzu said.

Doctors organisations have refuted the claims. ‘It is clearly election time,’ a spokesman for the KNMG doctors’ federation told RTL.