Dutch Cabinet collapses: Wilders pulls out of coalition after his PVV stalls asylum policy
Last update at 9:52 a.m.
The Cabinet in the Netherlands fell apart after less than a year in office when PVV leader Geert Wilders pulled out of the four-party coalition on Tuesday. The decision was announced by coalition parties VVD, NSC, and BBB after a brief second meeting on a set of ten demands about asylum, migration, and immigration policy Wilders put forward last week.
Wilders drew the ire and scorn of his colleagues for threatening to pull out of the coalition. The four parties had agreements in place about the issues during the marathon of contentious talks that led to the formation of the Cabinet eight months after the November 2023 election.
Further, it was the PVV’s own minister, Marjolein Faber, who was in charge of the portfolio. She was already considered a controversial choice to be Prime Minister Dick Schoof’s minister of asylum and migration as he formed his first Cabinet last July.
Schoof, who is not a member of any party and has never run for office, was already treading in uncertain waters. He issued an appeal to the four coalition leaders to keep their agreement in place for the sake of the Netherlands and political stability, confirmed VVD leader Dilan Yeşilgöz before the brief meeting on Tuesday.
The prime minister said, "all the major international challenges and national challenges, the possibility that the Cabinet falls cannot be the case at a time when you also agree with each other," Yesilgoz recounted. The VVD leader also said she could not explain why Wilders would bring down the Cabinet when the four coalition leaders basically agree with each other on asylum policy.
Last week Monday, Wilders presented a 10-point plan for an even stricter asylum policy, without consulting the other coalition parties about it. His list contained several measures that experts consider legally unfeasible, like a complete asylum stop, closing shelters, halting family reunification, and deporting Syrian asylum seekers. This was at least the third time that Wilders threatened to topple the government if his demands on asylum weren’t met.
Last night, the other three coalition parties drew a line, telling Wilders that they will not break the coalition agreement to add new asylum measures. They pointed out that many of Wilders’ demands are similar to agreements already in the coalition agreement and said that they would not stand in the PVV’s way to implement the already agreed-upon policy.
It is up to PVV Minister Marjolein Faber of Asylum and Migration to implement that policy, they said. But Wilders did not take the escape route presented to him, insisting that the other party leaders “now” sign his 10-point plan.
The Schoof I Cabinet started with a proud announcement that it would have the “strictest asylum policy ever.” But 11 months since it took office, Faber has implemented hardly any of the announced plans. The Asylum Distribution Act, which obliges municipalities to take in their fair share of asylum seekers, is still in force. Several courts have ordered Faber to keep funding overnight shelters for asylum seekers who have exhausted all legal remedies and to reverse budget cuts on the asylum aid organization Vluchtelingenwerk. Almost all her bills were met with criticism from the Council of State, the involved Inspectorates, and the Netherlands’ Ombudsmen.
