NSC leader calls for the Cabinet to keep an emergency law for asylum measures in reserve

Nicolien van Vroonhoven, interim party leader of the NSC, believes that the Cabinet should reserve the option of an emergency law for asylum. She said this on the program "Café Kockelmann." Her coalition colleague Dilan Yeşilgöz (VVD) also called on the Cabinet to do so.

At the moment, the Cabinet is sticking to an emergency law. The difference is that with an emergency law, it can take three months for parliament to pass it. The opposition is outraged by this. With an emergency law, parliament can deliberate in advance.

However, it remains to be seen whether the option of a state of emergency law will be adopted, as the government would then have to properly justify the existence of an emergency situation. The NSC wants the law to be legally sound, and Van Vroonhoven does not yet seem convinced of this. Therefore, she thinks it is a good idea for Yeşilgöz to already have the emergency law "on the shelf."

The cabinet does not want this yet, and PVV leader Geert Wilders was also upset by the proposal. He wants to stick to the emergency plan and assumes he would lose credibility if he changes his position "at the first breath of wind."

Van Vroonhoven has come under heavy pressure in the debate over this issue in recent days. Parties accused her of agreeing to an illegal emergency law undermining her party's right to exist. Van Vroonhoven reassured them that she felt "very comfortable" in the discussion and indicated that she did not expect the emergency law to be passed. Nevertheless, Wilders and his party colleague, Minister Marjolein Faber (Asylum), do not want to give in for the time being. Van Vroonhoven did not want to say in Café Kockelmann whether this subject was worth unleashing a cabinet crisis over.

The NSC leader also spoke out during the talk show in favor of the reintroduction of discretionary powers for Asylum Minister Faber. This would allow Faber to intervene in difficult situations such as that of 11-year-old Mikael, who is at risk of deportation. Last month, the Council of State decided that Mikael, who was born in the Netherlands, must leave the country with his Armenian mother. Minister Faber responded to the loud outcry in the Netherlands by saying that her hands were tied to prevent their deportation.