The Netherlands Office for Road Traffic has banned the letters PVV from car registration number plates. The three letters form the name of Geert Wilders' anti-Islam Freedom Party. Daily AD writes that the office decided to add the abbreviation to its list of three-letter combinations which are taboo, offensive or provocative.

The banned monikers include NSB (a Dutch fascist party of the 1930s), GVD (an explicit profanity) and LPF (the party of assassinated politician Pim Fortuyn). Certain foreign names are out, too, like PKK (the Kurdish terror group) or KKK for Klu Klux Klan.

Geert Wilders' party has reacted angrily to its being bundled with fascists and the KKK by the road traffic office. A spokesperson for the party said they will ask questions in parliament about the ban, pointing out that words like CDA (the Christian Democrat party) and VVD (the conservatives) appear not to have been banned.

Dutch car number plates have three figures and a group of three letters. In order to pre-empt the use of actual words, no vowels are allowed, just consonants. As it turns out, even then certain letter groupings are considered undesirable.

A Dutch car registration plate (ANP Photo)