Dutch government collapses over plan to further restrict immigration

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Prime Minister Mark Rutte of the Netherlands announced his resignation on Friday over a disagreement in his ruling coalition over how to curb migration.

The decision by the country’s longest-serving leader means that the Netherlands will hold general elections for the 150-seat House of Representatives later this year.

“It is no secret that the coalition partners have very different views on migration policy,” Rutte told reporters in The Hague.

“And today we unfortunately have to conclude that those differences are irreconcilable,” he said.

Mr Rutte said that he would immediately “offer the resignation of the entire cabinet to the king in writing”.

The coalition government that collapsed on Friday had spent months trying to broker a deal to cut the influx of new migrants entering the country of nearly 18 million people. Proposals reportedly include creating two types of asylum – a temporary one for people fleeing conflict and a permanent one for those trying to escape persecution – and reducing the number of family members allowed to join asylum seekers in the Netherlands.

Reuters reported that tensions came to a head this week, when Rutte demanded support for a proposal to limit entry for children of war refugees already in the Netherlands and make families wait at least two years before they can be reunited.

This last proposal went too far for the small Christian Union and the liberal D66 and caused a crisis.

Last year, hundreds of asylum seekers had to sleep outside in appalling conditions near an overcrowded reception center because the number of people arriving in the Netherlands exceeded the number of available beds. Dutch aid organizations offered help.

The discussions have underlined the ideological division in the coalition between the partner parties that are not in favor of a tough crackdown on migration – D66 and fellow centrist party ChristenUnie, or ChristenUnie – and the two that favor tougher measures – Rutte’s conservative People’s Party for the Freedom and Democracy and the Christian Democrats.

Mr Rutte’s cabinet met late Friday in a hastily scheduled meeting. “We talked for a long time, we’re coming here tonight because we didn’t succeed,” Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren told reporters as she walked into the cabinet meeting.

Rutte, the longest-serving prime minister in the Netherlands, chaired late-night meetings on Wednesday and Thursday that failed to reach a deal. More talks were held on Friday night and he declined to answer questions on the matter at his weekly pre-talk press conference.

“Everyone wants to find a good, effective solution that also does justice to the fact that human lives are at stake,” said Finance Minister Sigrid Kaag, a member of the center party D66, before the talks started.

Just over 21,500 people from outside Europe applied for asylum in the Netherlands in 2022, according to the country’s statistics office. Tens of thousands of others moved to the Netherlands to work and study.

The numbers have put pressure on homes that were already scarce in the densely populated country.

Rutte’s cabinet pushed for a law that could oblige municipalities to provide housing for newly arrived asylum seekers, but the legislation still has to pass through both chambers of parliament.

The prime minister also promoted European Union efforts to slow migration to the bloc of 27 countries. Mr Rutte visited Tunisia last month with his Italian counterpart and the chair of the EU’s executive committee to offer more than €1 billion in financial assistance to rescue the North African country’s floundering economy and support the migration of the coasts to Europe.

Rutte’s coalition government, the fourth he led, took office in January 2022 after the longest coalition negotiations in Dutch political history.

Elections for the 150-seat lower house of the Dutch parliament are likely to be held later this year amid a polarized and fragmented political landscape. The Rutte cabinet would probably remain in office as a caretaker cabinet until a new government was formed.

In the provincial elections earlier this year, a populist pro-farmers party put Rutte’s party in second place. The defeat was seen as a possible incentive for Rutte to do his utmost to keep his coalition together until the term expires in 2025.