Over a Plan to Further Limit Immigration, the Dutch Government Crashes
Over a Plan to Further Limit Immigration, the Dutch Government Crashes
The failure of the parties that comprised the Dutch government‘s ruling coalition to find a consensus on migration policy led to the collapse of the Dutch government on Friday. This highlights how the problem of asylum seekers arriving to Europe continues to split governments throughout the continent.
On Friday, Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who was supervising his fourth government and is one of Europe’s longest-serving leaders, announced to the press that he would be submitting his resignation to King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands. Rutte is one of Europe’s longest-serving leaders.
Mr. Rutte made his remarks to the media on Friday in The Hague. “It is no secret that the coalition partners have very different views on migration policy,” he said. “And unfortunately, as of today, we have no choice but to come to the realisation that these differences cannot be reconciled.”
The collapse of the government will result in the calling of fresh general elections in the autumn, and in the interim, a caretaker administration led by Mr Rutte will serve as the country’s executive branch.
The parties who are a part of the coalition government have been working hard to come to an agreement regarding migration. They have been debating the terms of family reunification and whether or not to create two different classes of asylum: one that is temporary for individuals who are escaping wars and one that is permanent for those who are fleeing persecution.
According to Dutch news organisations, Mr. Rutte had reportedly advocated for restricting the entry for children of war refugees who were already in the Netherlands and for making families wait at least two years before they could be reunited. He also reportedly called for limiting the entrance for children of war refugees who were already in the Netherlands. According to the Dutch broadcasting company NOS, Mr. Rutte refuted the reports in question.
The Dutch government, which already has stricter immigration rules than several other countries in the EU, has continued to be torn apart by disagreements about migration policy. This week, two parties in the ruling coalition, the Christian Union and the centrist D66, came to the conclusion that they were unable to reach an agreement with Mr. Rutte’s party, which resulted in a crisis inside the government.
According to a statement released by the Christian Union party, “one of the values that are important with the proposals is that children grow up with their parents.” “As a family party, we are committed to upholding these values.” The party stated that it wished to work “heart and soul for an effective and humane migration policy.”
Migration has proven to be an intractable problem among a significant number of voters and political parties in Europe. This has contributed to the rise in popularity of nationalistic and right-wing parties throughout the continent and has led to harsh criticism from rights advocates on the manner in which governments have treated migrants. A year ago, Dutch charity organisations had a difficult time providing assistance to hundreds of asylum seekers who were living in a makeshift camp outside of an overcrowded receiving centre in what aid workers characterised as deplorable conditions.
According to the government of the Netherlands, more than 21,000 individuals from countries that are not members of the European Union applied for asylum in the Netherlands in 2017. According to the office, the total number of persons who moved to the Netherlands in 2022 was over 400,000, which is an increase over the previous year.
The enormous numbers of new immigrants have put a pressure on the housing capacity of the Netherlands, which was already insufficient to meet the demands of the country’s population of more than 17 million people.
The Dutch government’s leading parties had been holding many meetings over the last few days in an effort to establish a middle ground, and Mr. Rutte’s cabinet had its own meeting late Friday evening to discuss the matter.
According to The Associated Press, Defence Minister Kajsa Ollongren told reporters as she entered the cabinet meeting, “We talked for a long time, and we are coming here tonight because we did not succeed.” Ollongren was quoted as saying this as she entered the meeting.
A representative of the D66 party, the Minister of Finance, Sigrid Kaag, stated before to the start of the negotiations that “everyone wants to find a good, effective solution that also does justice to the fact that this is about human lives.”
During the course of the last decade, thousands of refugees from Africa and the Middle East have sought refuge in the European Union. At the same time, far-right groups that are opposed to immigration have gained momentum across the 27-member bloc. As a result of their success, center-right and right-wing parties in various nations have moved farther to the right in terms of their policies regarding immigration and asylum.
In regional elections held in Spain in June, the far-right Vox party fared better than predicted, and in Sweden’s parliamentary elections held in the autumn of 2018, the Sweden Democrats, a party with origins in the neo-Nazi movement, received 20.5 percent of the vote and became the second largest party in Parliament. Both of these results were surprising to political observers.
Marine Le Pen, a leader of the far right in France who has long advocated for restrictive immigration policies, made it all the way to the final round of voting in the country’s presidential election last year. Viktor Orban, the Prime Minister of Hungary, has maintained his grip on power in part by stoking fears around immigration.
Giorgia Meloni, who has a long history of criticising immigration and the European Union, was chosen as the leader of a hard-right coalition in Italy last year. This election has fostered worries about the nation’s dependability within the Western alliance.
During his trip to Tunisia with Ms. Meloni and a prominent leader from the European Union, Ursula Von der Leyen, Mr. Rutte had previously endorsed the efforts of the European Union to curb migration. The leaders made the announcement in a joint statement, saying that the European Union will pay 100 million euros, which is around $109 million, to Tunisia for “border management” as well as search-and-rescue and anti-smuggling measures.
The most recent time that Mr. Rutte and his cabinet resigned was in 2021, and it was in response to a study that highlighted his government’s systemic inability to safeguard thousands of families from aggressive tax inspectors. However, Mr. Rutte was able to weather that crisis, and after nine months of discussions in December, he emerged as the leader of the Netherlands once again.
