2023-07-08 05:06:00
During the night, the government confirmed that Rutte had submitted his resignation to King Willem-Alexander and would meet him on Saturday. According to the Dutch electoral authority, new elections cannot take place until mid-November at the earliest.
Until then, Rutte announced that he would remain in office as an executive and continue to take care of the tasks ahead, including supporting Ukraine once morest the Russian war of aggression. He still has the “energy” to run for new elections as the top candidate of his centre-right party VVD, but he has to “think regarding it” first.
Tensions within the ruling coalition had escalated, according to media reports, following Rutte’s VVD proposed stricter rules for asylum seekers and threatened to leave the cabinet if these measures were not passed. Among other things, Rutte had demanded that family reunification of refugees be made more difficult. Days of crisis talks between the coalition partners had not led to an agreement, said Rutte on Friday evening.
The Christian Democratic party Christen Unie had declared that they “might not live with Rutte’s proposal”. Christen-Unie politician and Deputy Prime Minister Carola Schouten said it was a “central value” for her party that “children grow up with their parents”.
Finance Minister Sigrid Kaag’s center-left D66 party also reportedly rejected Rutte’s call for three-day crisis talks. Kaag described the fall of the government as “regrettable” and the tensions within the coalition as “unnecessary”.
Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra from the fourth coalition partner, the Christian Democratic CDA, called the breakup of the coalition “very disappointing” and “inexplicable to the people”.
Discussed regarding it for a year and a half
The Dutch government has been at odds on the issue since it took office a year and a half ago. A scandal broke out last year when a baby died in an overcrowded asylum center and hundreds of people had to sleep outdoors. Rutte’s previous government resigned in 2021 following a child benefit scandal.
The forthcoming election campaign is likely to be heated. The farmers-citizens movement (BBB), which was founded just four years ago and has gained strength as a result of the protests once morest the climate protection plans supported by the EU, also wants to win in the national parliamentary elections following a clear electoral success in the provincial elections in March. Pressure from the BBB may also have contributed to the Dutch media’s fall of the government: Rutte wanted to be tough on asylum policy in order to distinguish himself from the right wing of his VVD party – since the BBB is now also trying to attract disappointed VVD voters.
How to deal with immigrants?
Like other European countries, the Netherlands is grappling with the question of how to deal with the large number of immigrants. According to earlier media reports, Rutte was prepared to let the government fail if necessary. Asylum applications in the Netherlands rose by a third to over 46,000 last year and are expected to rise to more than 70,000 this year – a new high since 2015.
Mark Rutte (56) has been Prime Minister of the Netherlands for almost 13 years, making him one of the longest-serving heads of government in the EU. Since January 2022, he has led his fourth cabinet following coalition negotiations that lasted a good nine months, making them the longest in the country’s history.
After numerous crises, the coalition’s poll numbers had fallen sharply. In the most recent provincial elections in March, in which the first chamber of parliament – comparable to the Federal Council – was elected, all governing parties posted significant losses. The big election winner was the right-wing populist peasant movement BBB, which became the strongest force right away. The BBB is only represented by one deputy in the Lower House. Great success is predicted for the party in a new election.
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Dutch government collapses over migration debate
THE HAGUE. According to a media report, the Dutch government coalition broke up in a dispute over asylum policy.
Dutch government collapses over migration debate
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