VVD leader surprised by Wilders' abrupt departure from formation talks on asylum

VVD leader Dilan Yeşilgöz was surprised when PVV leader Geert Wilders suddenly left a Cabinet formation meeting on asylum on Monday. “We were moving toward a solid package” of asylum measures, Yeşilgöz said on the talk show BEAU. She said the far-right leader’s departure appeared to be “premeditated.” Wilders rejoined the talks on Tuesday. "I hope it works," he told the media before entering the meeting.

The PVV, VVD, NSC, and BBB negotiators were scheduled to meet until 7:00 p.m. on Monday, but Wilders walked out at around 3:30 p.m. He told NOS that he was unhappy with the proposals on the table to limit the influx of asylum seekers. “I walked away angry because things were not going well on asylum.” On X, he added that he was done making concessions. “They have to deliver now.”

Formation talks leaders Richard van Zwol and Elbert Dijkgraaf contradicted that Wilders walked away in a huff. “He left the building in an orderly manner,” Dijkgraaf said. According to him, difficult conversations are part of the negotiation process. “At a certain point, the moment comes where you have to ask yourself: Are we going to make any progress on this today?”

Yeşilgöz told BEAU that they were discussing “a strong package of asylum measures.” And then “Geert Wilders suddenly walked away,” she said. “I don’t know why he did that. I think if we had continued until later, we could have almost gotten through it.”

The PVV, VVD, NSC, and BBB leaders will continue talking with the formation leaders on Tuesday morning. Yeşilgöz said that nothing has changed in the talks, but she is critical of how Wilders handled the situation. “If you walk away in the middle of that conversation and then start tweeting, that is awkward.”

According to NOS political reporter Marleen de Rooij, Wilders’ walkout is partly a performance for his supporters. “He wants to show them that he is fighting for this issue, which he made the biggest promises about in the campaign, and why many people voted for his party. Everyone in The Hague assumed he would bang his fist on the table at some point during the negotiations,” she said. “At the same time, it is also a realistic scenario that the formation negotiations fail on the subject of asylum and migration. Because Wilders wants measures that are not in accordance with international treaties and the rule of law.”

Earlier on Monday, two experts in the field of asylum and migration—Hein de Haas and Jan van de Beek—spoke to the four party leaders. Afterward, De Haas took the time to explain what he spoke to the formation parties about. According to him, political parties often think too easily about the optic of migration. It’s not something you can simply close like a tap, he said. He called “solutions” like closing all borders “illusion politics.”

He explained to the parties that migration is a complex issue. If it had been simple, previous Cabinets wouldn’t have collapsed on the topic, he said. “Migration can’t be ignored or wished away, and you often see that in politics. It is not a question of more or less. It is a matter of how we are going to arrange it. Journalists don’t ask economists: Are you for or against the economy?” De Haas said.