The Dutch cabinet has collapsed, with PVV leader Geert Wilders leaving the coalition over disagreements about asylum policy.
After crisis talks between coalition party leaders broke down, on June 3, far-right PVV leader Geert Wilders made an exit from the coalition with the VVD, NSC and BBB on behalf of his party.
Last week, Wilders presented a 10-point plan for a stricter asylum policy. With this plan, he wanted the government to close the borders to all asylum seekers, for all Syrians living in the Netherlands to be returned to their country, the end of family reunification and the closure of asylum centres - all within a few weeks. There have been warnings that these plans conflict with the European human rights laws or the UN Refugee Convention of 1951.
The three other coalition parties gave no resistance to the plan, believing that it was up to PVV Minister of Asylum and Migration Marjolein Faber to achieve the plans in time, but Wilders threatened to pull out of the coalition if they did not sign the plan themselves. “No signature for our asylum plans, no changes to the main coalition agreement. The PVV is leaving the coalition,” Wilders wrote on social media.
"He is choosing his own ego and his own interests," VVD leader Dilan Yesilgöz told NOS. "I am astonished. He is throwing away the chance of a right-wing policy. This is super irresponsible." NSC and BBB leaders are unsurprisingly also shocked and angry over Wilder’s decision.
"He holds all the cards and is deliberately pulling the plug," said BBB leader Caroline van der Plas. The cabinet will meet at 1.30pm on Tuesday to discuss how to proceed, but it is likely that Prime Minister Dick Schoof will hand in the resignation of the cabinet to the king by the end of the day.
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