2023-07-08 11:47:24
Four ruling parties and divergent opinions on Dutch migration policy. The coalition government of Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte collapsed on Friday July 7 after “insurmountable” differences between these parties on this subject, leading to the upcoming holding of early legislative elections.
Mark Rutte, one of the longest-serving heads of government in the European Union, and the longest in office in Dutch history, said that the emergency negotiations between the parties of the coalition ultimately did not lead to an agreement.
They stumbled over the Prime Minister’s plan to tighten restrictions on family reunification for asylum seekers, with the aim of reducing their numbers after a scandal linked to his management of overcrowded refugee reception centres.
“Very different visions”
“It’s no secret that the coalition partners have very different views on migration policy,” said Mark Rutte, of the liberal right-wing VVD (People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy), during an interview. an extraordinary press conference in The Hague. The Prime Minister added that he still has “the energy” to present himself as the head of his party’s list in the legislative elections in order to aim for a fifth term, but that he first had to “think about it”.
He submitted his resignation to the king later in the evening, the government said in a statement, adding that the Prime Minister has an appointment this Saturday at the Huis ten Bosch Palace in The Hague, where the royal family resides, in order to talk about the fall of his government – Mark Rutte’s fourth since 2010.
“Unnecessary tension”
Early parliamentary elections will take place in mid-November at the earliest, the electoral commission said. In recent days, the head of government had caused trouble among his right-wing and center partners, demanding that they adopt a series of divisive measures around the reception of asylum seekers, including the introduction of a quota for the number of children from conflict areas who can obtain asylum in the Netherlands.
Refugees already established in the Netherlands will no longer be allowed to be joined there by their children if a monthly quota of 200 children has already been reached, he also asked.
Two of the four parties in the coalition, which are more flexible on immigration, the small Protestant party ChristenUnie and the liberal centrists of D66, opposed this project. “The family, and that children grow up with their parents, is a fundamental value for us”, explained the Minister for the Fight against Poverty and member of ChristenUnie, Carola Schouten, adding that it was “a very difficult moment “.
Finance Minister Sigrid Kaag of D66 said there had been “unnecessary tension” in the talks and the collapse of the government was “regrettable”. Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra, of the Christian Democrat CDA party, for his part said that the fall of the government was “very disappointing, unnecessary and inexplicable for the people of the country”.
The success of a new pro-farmer training
The Netherlands will soon enter the electoral campaign, one of the most stormy and divisive for several years. A new pro-farmer party, the Farmer-Citizen Movement (BoerBurgerBeweging or BBB), opposed to EU environmental regulations, won the most seats in regional elections in March, which also determine the composition of the Senate.
Its leader Caroline van der Plas says she refuses to allow her party to be part of a coalition in which Mark Rutte would play a role. And she does not rule out aiming for the post of Prime Minister.
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