Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem faces calls to resign after making controversial comments about southern European countries | Emmanuel Dudand/AFP via Getty Images Calls for Dijsselbloem to quit Eurogroup over ‘stupid jokes’ Dutch finance minister’s future as head of Eurogroup already in doubt after his Labor Party’s poor election performance.

Portugal's Prime Minister António Costa and Italy's former Prime Minister Matteo Renzi have added their voices to calls for Jeroen Dijsselbloem to resign as head of the Eurogroup because his comments about southern European countries spending money on "liquor and women."

"The sooner he resigns, the better," Renzi, the head of Italy's governing center-left Democratic Party, wrote on his Facebook page, calling the Dutch EU official's comments "stupid jokes."

Costa was quoted by Portuguese newspaper Expresso calling Dijsselbloem's remarks "sexist, xenophobic and racist" and saying he could not remain as head of the Eurogroup. "You have offended us," said Costa. "Mr. Dijsselbloem must disappear."

Dijsselbloem's future as head of the Eurogroup of eurozone finance ministers is already in question because his Labor Party performed so badly in the Dutch elections that he stands to lose his cabinet job.

He annoyed fellow center-left politicians in the EU by telling the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on Monday that “countries in crisis” — widely seen as a reference to southern European countries involved in the eurozone debt crisis — should stick to deficit targets set by the European Commission. "I cannot spend all my money on liquor and women and plead for your support afterwards. This principle applies on the personal, local, national and also European level,” Dijsselbloem told the paper.

A spokesperson for Dijsselbloem said his comments had not been aimed at any country in particular and has been misinterpreted. “His message was meant for all Eurozone countries: solidarity means obligations too,” said the spokesperson.

That was not the impression of fellow European center-left politicians like Renzi, who wrote on Facebook: “I think that people like Dijsselbloem, who also belongs to the European Socialist party even if perhaps he didn’t realize it, doesn’t deserve to hold the position he currently holds.” The Dutchman's resignation would also be good "for the credibility of the European institutions,” he said.

Spanish Economy Minister Luis de Guindos told reporters in Madrid the comments were "unfortunate," adding: "I had hoped he would apologize." De Guindos has long been considered a candidate for the Eurogroup presidency, though El País newspaper quoted him as saying that he is not a candidate "at the moment."

Criticism has also came from Sergei Stanishev, the president of the EU’s pan-European socialist party (PES) who said in a statement issued on Wednesday that Dijsselbloem’s comments “by no means reflect our political family.”

“He managed to insult and discredit so many people and spread divisions,” Stanishev wrote, adding that such remarks "are simply unacceptable, especially in such critical time for the European integration project.”

This story has been updated to add the Portuguese prime minister's reaction.

Ivo Oliveira contributed to this article.