In the Netherlands, the ruling coalition collapsed over a dispute over asylum policy. The differences between the four coalition parties on migration policy are irreconcilable, said Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Friday evening in The Hague: “This is an extremely regrettable political reality.”
This means that Rutte’s fourth cabinet is coming to an early end about a year and a half after it started. After several days of negotiations, the left-liberal D66, the Christian Union and the Christian Democratic CDA refused to support Rutte’s proposal to tighten asylum policy. A compromise fell through at the last minute. Rutte’s right-wing liberal VVD had insisted on finding an agreement by Friday at the latest.
Rutte has long been under pressure from his party, which expects him to take steps to limit immigration. He was only able to prevent an uprising by the VVD delegates in November by promising to achieve this goal in some way. Since refugee policy is largely Europeanized, he first tried it in the EU and insisted on compliance with the Dublin rules. They state that asylum seekers actually have to submit their applications in the country of arrival, i.e. in the external border states. After protests from Italians and Greeks, Rutte supported the construction of border walls. Most recently, he was particularly involved in the EU’s attempt to conclude a comprehensive cooperation agreement on migration with Tunisia.
More asylum seekers are expected than at any time since 2015
All of this changes little in the short term in the situation in the Netherlands. Asylum applications there rose by a third to more than 46,000 last year and could rise to more than 70,000 this year, according to one forecast. However, only about 15,000 applications were counted by May. After a temporary increase in autumn, the numbers have been rather low for months, so that the annual figure could be significantly lower.
The country’s asylum facilities were under pressure last year. The initial reception is organized centrally in Ten Apel. There, hundreds of refugees were forced to sleep in the open for months with little or no access to drinking water, sanitation or health care.
At a party conference in early June, the VVD had insisted on further steps. Rutte’s suggestion was to severely restrict the possibilities of family reunification for war refugees. Other countries in the EU are already handling this more restrictively, but there are always court decisions in Germany that allow families to join them. Specifically, Rutte proposed allowing a maximum of 200 refugees per month to have their families join them, and this after a period of two years. That was unacceptable, especially for the Christian Union and CDA, which are considered family parties. Similar plans failed last year due to objections from several courts.
Rutte was now obviously going for a break. The coalition partners reacted with surprise and anger at his relentlessness. The CDA parliamentary group leader Pieter Heerma spoke of “ruthless” politics.
The opposition called for new elections in the evening. It is likely that this will happen. It would also be conceivable that a minority cabinet would initially continue to govern. Or that a mediator tries to bring the government alliance together again. Rutte left open in the evening whether he would run again in an election.
The coalition was ill-fated from the start. Ten months had passed between the election and the swearing-in of the ministers. Rutte, who has ruled since 2010, went ailing to the middle alliance. His previous cabinet fell over a scandal, after which the Prime Minister gambled away a lot of trust with false statements about the pledge of an uncomfortable politician. He was almost at the end of his career. In the absence of alternatives, D66 and CDA once again got on board with the right-wing liberals. However, it was clear to all sides that asylum policy could become a bone of contention.