PVV leader Geert Wilders has made a formal complaint to the public prosecution department, calling for legal action to be taken against GroenLinks-PvdA leader Frans Timmermans for incitement.

Wilders claims that Timmermans was inciting violence or that his comments could be taken to incite violence when he said in a speech the alliance “would stop at nothing” to prevent the far-right leader from coming to power. 

Timmermans later issued a statement saying he had not called for violence. “My means are always parliamentary and nothing else,” he said. “This is what Wilders always does when he faces criticism. He starts hitting out wildly.”

Wilders’ action, commentators point out, also completely overshadowed the speech itself. Last week Timmermans began expressing his impatience at the slow progress being made in the coalition formation talks and said it was time to try a different approach.

Legal experts told RTL Nieuws that Wilders’ complaint is “extremely unusual” and the chance of it ending up in court is “negligible”. 

“If you ask me, this is just for show,” lawyer Anis Boumanjal said. “Frans Timmerman’s text is not incitement in itself… particularly given the circumstances in which it was said.”