Dutch Government Collapses Over Immigration Failure

Update:

Prime Minister Dick Schoof has just announced that he would offer his resignation from the Netherlands’ ruling coalition while continuing in a caretaker government, setting the stage for a likely snap election.

"Wilders has plunged the Netherlands into another round of political chaos," said Mujtaba Rahman, managing director for Europe at the Eurasia Group.

"The Dutch parliament can try to find a new majority or else there will be early elections. But the immediate outlook is one of chaos and uncertainty."

The country has been in turmoil since Rutte resigned in 2023 after his coalition failed to pass comprehensive immigration legislation.

Original:

Dutch right-wing leader Geert Wilders has pulled his Freedom Party (PVV) from the country's ruling coalition after issuing an ultimatum last week demanding tougher action on curbing the migrant crisis. With no agreement, Wilders, whose party held the most seats, quit the coalition in The Hague, plunging the Netherlands into political uncertainty.

"No signature for our asylum plans. No changes to the Main Outline Agreement. PVV leaves the coalition," Wilders wrote on X earlier.

"The PVV promised voters the strictest asylum policy ever," including a hard-line 10-point plan to "close the borders to asylum-seekers," Wilders told reporters earlier. He noted that when coalition partners (populist Farmer-Citizens Movement (BBB), the centrist New Social Contract (NSC), and the liberal People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD)) disagreed on the new plans, "I had no choice but to say: We rescind support for this Cabinet."

The four-party coalition lasted 11 months and was fraught with frequent disputes.

At a press conference last Monday, Wilders unveiled the border plan to reduce migration and dismantle existing asylum policies. He warned the coalition that failure to adopt the plan would trigger the PVV's withdrawal.

"Our patience has run out now," PVV's leader said at the time, adding his party has been "very reasonable and very patient" over the past year while waiting for tougher migrant policies.

"My limit, and the limit of a lot of Dutch people, has been reached," he noted, emphasizing, "Holland must become Holland again. The PVV will wait no longer."

So what's next?

Politico offered key insight:

Ministers are meeting Tuesday to decide what's next, although the assumption is that the prime minister will offer up the resignation of his cabinet.

Leftist corporate media have framed Wilders' PVV exit as a "tantrum" or evidence of "political chaos." In reality, it's anything but. Voters sent him to The Hague with a clear mandate: curb inbound migration flows and dismantle existing asylum policies. He didn't win on promises of compromise—he won by pledging to stop the migrant crisis that has very much doomed parts of Europe.

More broadly, right-wing movements across Europe have surged by focusing on the continent's out-of-control migrant crisis, securing political gains this year in Germany, Poland, Austria, Portugal, and Romania.

On Sunday, nationalist conservative Karol Nawrocki was elected president of Poland and won based on immigration, abortion, support for Ukraine, and Polish integration with the rest of Europe.