The far-right PVV has again refused to support its minister over plans to cope with the shortage of prison cells, instead calling for “eight men in a cell” who should “sleep standing up” as an option.

Prisons minister Ingrid Coenradie was attempting to win MPs’ support for her plan to release some prisoners two weeks early because of the shortage of space, but this is a measure “which is not going to happen,” PVV parliamentarian Emiel van Dijk said during a bad-tempered debate.

PVV leader Geert Wilders said last month that “no prisoners are going to be let out one or two weeks early” and threatened to pull support for his minister, a move he later retracted.

Coenradie told the parliamentary justice committee on Wednesday that the situation is extremely complicated and said that her measure to send prisoners home early is the best of a bad set of choices.

During the discussion, Van Dijk suggested putting eight people in a cell and letting them sleep standing up, to which JA21 MP Joost Eerdmans responded by saying this was the “Auschwitz method.”

“Are you really serious?” he asked Van Dijk. “Your party is part of this cabinet. So you either back your minister or send her home.”

Coenradie and prison organisations oppose multiple occupancy cells because of the safety risk to inmates and guards.

“We are talking about cells measuring 10 square meters. I do not want to treat people like garbage,” Coenradie said. “I want them to leave prison decently and hopefully never come back.”

The minister is also planning to build two emergency prisons with basic facilities and has said she needs “hundreds of millions” of euros to address the lack of cells and personnel after 26 jails were closed and hundreds of prison officers quit their jobs in the last 10 years. The prison occupancy rate is currently 99.5%.

The debate will continue next week.