Just hours after far-right icon Geert Wilders withdrew support for the coalition government in an immigration-related row, Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof announced his resignation.
Wilders announced on Tuesday that his Party for Freedom (PVV) had withdrawn from the right-wing coalition because its three partners had failed to support his efforts to restrict immigration. This caused the government to go into a bind.
“No signature required by our asylum plans.” After a brief meeting of party leaders in parliament, the PVV leader said in a post on X.
Schoof announced he would step down following an emergency cabinet meeting that was set up following Wilders’ announcement.
According to the Reuters news agency, Wilders’s PVV ministers would leave the cabinet, while the rest would continue to serve as a caretaker government, adding that any new elections are likely to be held until October.
‘Irresponsible’
Wilders’ coalition partners accused him of putting his country’s interests before those of his own at a crucial time for Europe.
“Our continent is in a war,” he declared. Wilders is demonstrating that he is unwilling to accept responsibility, according to Dilan Yesilgoz, the leader of the conservative People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy.
The center-right leader of the centrist New Social Contract, Nicolien van Vroonhoven, described the flamboyant far-right figure as “irresponsible at this point.”
The Labour/Green Left alliance’s leader Frans Timmermans said he could not “see any other way to form a stable government” than through early elections.
The Netherlands’ “Demise”
The PVV capitalized on Europe’s rising populist tide with promises to combat immigration to claim the most votes in the November 2023 elections, which came in at 23 percent.
However, Schoof, an unelected career bureaucrat, emerged as a compromise candidate after Wilders failed to win enough votes to become prime minister. There was no ministerial position for Wilders.
Wilders has repeatedly criticized the coalition for putting his party’s immigration proposals into practice.
The PVV’s support has dropped to about 20%, matching its polls-reported level with the Labour/Green Left alliance, despite continuing to be popular.
Wilders urged the coalition to approve a 10-point plan to reduce immigration, including mobilizing the army to patrol Dutch borders and rejecting all asylum requests last week.
As he explained his exit, Wilders told reporters on Tuesday, “I signed up for the toughest asylum policy and not the Netherlands’ downfall.”
The decision comes a day after Karol Nawrocki, a nationalist conservative, was declared the winner of Poland’s presidential election, giving right-wing populists a leg up in Europe.
Source: Aljazeera
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