The Dutch government collapsed after Party for Freedom (PVV) leader Geert Wilders said his party would pull out of the governing coalition on Tuesday.
Wilders said other coalition parties were unwilling to acquiesce to his wishes to completely stop illegal immigration, which he had demanded support for last week.
Taking to X, he wrote: “No signature for our asylum plans. No amendment to the Main Lines Agreement. PVV leaves the coalition.”
He later added: “We had no choice. I promised the voter the strictest asylum policy ever, but that was not granted to you.”
Wilders’s move prompted the resignation of Prime Minister Dick Schoof.
“I have told party leaders repeatedly in recent days that the collapse of the cabinet would be unnecessary and irresponsible,” Schoof said after an emergency cabinet meeting.
“We are facing major challenges both nationally and internationally that require decisiveness from us.”
Schoof added that he would hand his resignation to King Willem-Alexander later on Tuesday.
Last week, Wilders asked coalition partners to sign up to a plan to cut illegal immigration, which included using the army to protect Dutch borders, rejecting all illegal immigrants, sending Syrian refugees back to their country, and closing asylum shelters.
At the time, he said that if the country’s immigration policy was not strengthened, the PVV “is out of the Cabinet.”
He has now followed through on that threat.
The PVV’s withdrawal will likely lead to new elections in the coming months as it shatters the fragile coalition, which has struggled to reach any consensus since it came to power almost a year ago.
Wilders’s party is the largest in the Dutch parliament.
Wilder’s coalition partners responded to the news.
“Onceagain,Wildersputshisowninterestsabovetheinterestsofourcountry.Bywalkingaway.Inatimeofunprecedenteduncertainty.Awararoundthecorner,apotentialeconomiccrisislooming,andpeoplelyingawakeovertheirbills.TheNetherlandsneedsamatureandresponsibleleaderwhokeepsussafe.ButWildersislettingtheNetherlandsdown.“ the leader of the conservative People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), Dilan Yesilgoz, wrote on X.
Centrist New Social Contract party (NSC) leader Nicolien van Vroonhoven echoed Yesilgoz’s sentiments, saying: “Irresponsible that Geert Wilders is stepping out of this coalition. Right now, we could have achieved a lot—especially when it comes to stricter migration policies.”
Caroline van der Plas, leader of the Farmers Citizens Movement (BBB), which is part of the coalition, labeled Wilders “reckless” for pulling out of it.
“The cabinet didn’t fall because the plans were unfeasible, it fell because they weren’t implemented,” she said.
Without the PVV, the remaining coalition parties do have the option of trying to continue in power as a minority government, but are not expected to do so.
Opposition leader Frans Timmermans said new elections were the only option.
The leader of the Labour/Green combination told Dutch broadcaster NOS: “We’ve had enough standstill for now, and that’s not helping our country move forward. There’s a war in Europe, and people are deeply worried about their future. That calls for leadership, solidarity, and fair sharing. Let’s get to work!”
Wilders won the most seats in parliament in the 2023 election with 23 percent of the vote, but recent polling shows he has lost support since the PVV joined the government.
Despite being the leader of the largest party, Wilders was not part of the government or a minister.
He only managed to reach a deal with three other right-of-center parties last year after he agreed not to become prime minister.
Instead, the cabinet was led by unelected career bureaucrat Schoof, who previously led the Dutch intelligence agency AIVD and worked as a senior official at the Ministry of Justice.
Wilders’s move will likely leave the Netherlands in the hands of a caretaker government as it hosts world leaders for a NATO summit in The Hague later this month.
The Dutch government collapsed after Party for Freedom (PVV) leader Geert Wilders said his party would pull out of the governing coalition on Tuesday.
