This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

The new US ambassador to the Netherlands – in trouble over a fake news scandal – clashed on Wednesday with Dutch reporters who told him: “This is the Netherlands, you have to answer questions.”

On his first official day in the job, Pete Hoekstra was taken to task over controversial comments he made in 2015 in which he said that the “Islamic movement” was creating chaos in Europe and suggested that extremists were burning politicians and cars in the Netherlands.

At a press conference shortly after presenting his credentials to Dutch King Willem-Alexander at a palace in The Hague, Hoekstra was repeatedly asked about the comments he made at a 2015 conference, which made headlines last year when he described his own words to a Dutch reporter as fake news. Hoekstra later denied using the phrase fake news.

US ambassador to Netherlands describes own words as 'fake news' Read more

In a statement last year, Hoekstra said: “I made certain remarks in 2015 and regret the exchange during the Nieuwsuur interview. Please accept my apology.”

Hoekstra said in 2015: “The Islamic movement has now gotten to a point where they have put Europe into chaos. Chaos in the Netherlands, there are cars being burnt, there are politicians that are being burnt … and, yes, there are no-go zones in the Netherlands.”

Hoekstra said on Wednesday he did not want to revisit the issue – but that did not stop Dutch reporters from pressing unsuccessfully for a clarification.

One reporter told him: “This is the Netherlands, you have to answer questions,” while another asked if the ambassador could name a politician who had been set on fire in recent years.

Hoekstra, a former Republican congressman from Michigan, was born in the northern Dutch city of Groningen before his family emigrated to the United States.

He told reporters he would work to build on existing strong links between the Netherlands and the US.