06 March 2017•Update: 06 March 2017
ROTTERDAM, Netherlands
Far-right Dutch politician Geert Wilders announced Monday that he would protest the possibility of any visit by Turkey’s foreign minister ahead of Turkey’s constitutional change referendum.
The Freedom Party (PVV) leader said on Twitter that he had applied to demonstrate in front of Turkey's Hague Embassy against any referendum rally by Mevlut Cavusoglu.
"No to Turkish ministers' campaign in Holland," he posted.
Dutch TV channel NOS later announced that Wilders would stage the protest in the early hours of Wednesday.
A rally for Turkey's April 16 referendum on constitutional changes was banned by Dutch officials last Friday.
"The Netherlands is not a place for other countries' election rallies," Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said on Facebook Friday. "We will not cooperate with this. We find this undesirable."
"We believe that the Dutch public space is not the place for political campaigns of other countries," he added.
However, Cavusoglu later said the Netherlands could not hold back Turkish officials. "We go wherever we want, and meet with our citizens," he said.
*Reporting by Abdullah Asiran; Writing by Burcu Arik
