Turkey’s president ratcheted up his diplomatic row with the Netherlands on Tuesday, claiming the country had a “rotten character” and blaming Dutch troops for the worst massacre in Europe since the second world war.

The remarks by Recep Tayyip Erdogan come less than 24 hours before Dutch voters go to the polls in a national election that has been coloured by a heated debate about the role of Islam in Dutch society, spurred by anti-Islam candidate Geert Wilders. Mr Wilders’ Freedom party (PVV) is polling second in the race.

“We know the Netherlands and the Dutch from the Srebrenica massacre,” Mr Erdogan said, invoking the most shameful episode in modern Dutch history. “We know how rotten their character is from their massacre of 8,000 Bosnians there.”