A local leader of the Dutch Labour Party (PvdA) has resigned his position after sending out a tweet saying that he wished populist firebrand Geert Wilders would die of a heart attack.

The offending tweet was one of several sent late Thursday morning by Willem den Hertog, a lawyer and PvdA leader in the North Sea resort of Katwijk. In it he expressed the wish “that Wilders dies of a heart attack in bed (if not between the legs of a left-wing parliamentarian)”.

It represented his response to the comment made by Geert Wilders’ earlier this week, reported by Breitbart London, when the anti-Islam politician said that if he were shot then the Labour Party would be to blame.

Mr. Wilders was complaining of being demonised by opponents after Hans Spekman, the Chairman of the PvdA, had called him a threat to democracy and the rule of law. Reminding people of the death of populist Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn after he was demonised by a former PvdA leader, Mr. Wilders predicted:

“If the bullet comes from the left, it will have the letters PvdA on it.”

Mr. den Hertog echoed those comments in subsequent tweets, reports NL Times. He wrote: “But if there is a bullet on the way, then let it be big enough to engrave ‘From the grateful Dutch people’ on it.”

Referring to Mr. Wilders’ political party — the Party for Freedom (PVV) — Mr. den Hertog’s final tweet on the subject asked: “How many PVVers are now carving ‘PvdA’ on their bullets?”

Despite his earlier criticism, Mr. Spekman distanced himself from his fellow party member’s “horrible” comments, describing them as “misguided and wrong” and saying “we debate on the basis of content”.

According to the daily newspaper, De Telegraaf, Mr. den Hertog has now resigned his position in the PvdA. Although he had tried to make clear the tweets were sent in a private capacity, an emergency meeting of his local party found his position to be untenable.

Mr. Wilders himself responded to the tweets with one of his own that included the hashtag “bullet from the left”. It read: “Shocking message. Maybe now PvdA chairman Spekman understands what I meant.”

Schokkend bericht. Misschien dat PvdA-Voorzitter Spekman nu begrijpt wat ik bedoelde. #kogelvanlinks https://t.co/82RR7PIp5U — Geert Wilders (@geertwilderspvv) February 11, 2016