Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte (VVD) will visit King Willem-Alexander today to explain the resignation of his government. His coalition partners are very disappointed, the opposition parties seem to be kicking off the campaign. New elections will not follow until mid-November at the earliest.
The four parties of the Rutte IV government (CDA, VVD, ChristenUnie and D66) pulled the plug from the coalition on Friday evening due to irreconcilable differences of opinion about a stricter migration policy. Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who has been in the saddle for a total of ten years, will soon be going to Huis ten Bosch Palace to give King Willem-Alexander an oral explanation of the resignation of his government – which he previously offered in writing. The king must return from abroad for this.
After Rutte’s press conference, the party leaders came out for a few nightly statements. Deputy Prime Minister Sigrid Kaag, resigning Minister of Finance and party leader of D66, calls the fall ‘regrettable’. She speaks of “unnecessary tensions” over the past week, but points out that the decision was made with four parties. “There were four of us, all four of us were there.”
However, her party colleague and D66 party chairman Jan Paternotte mainly looks in the direction of Rutte, who three days ago dug in his heels for a significant tightening of asylum policy. ‘Last Wednesday there was suddenly an extra requirement on the table. In a way of: this has to be it, otherwise you just figure it out,’ he said in Op1 (BNNVara).
CDA leader Wopke Hoekstra, Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Rutte IV government, reacted deeply disappointed. He finds the cabinet fall ‘unnecessary’ and ‘frankly impossible to explain to the people in the country’. “It would have been worth it to see if you could still get out,” said a visibly tired Hoekstra last night. He expects that the asylum problems will only get worse. Party leader Pieter Heerma was even more firm about this on Friday evening at Nieuwsuur. He said that Rutte took an ‘irresponsibly tough’ attitude during the asylum consultations and pursued a ‘reckless policy’ by threatening votes in the Council of Ministers.
‘Responsible’
For the ChristenUnie, the extra restrictions that Rutte had put on the table were imbuvable. ‘We talked for an incredibly long time about a whole package of measures. It didn’t work out and I feel that responsibility very heavily,” said Deputy Prime Minister Carola Schouten in front of the NOS camera. Party leader Mirjam Bikker adds in a response that it was ‘unwise’ of Rutte to demand a vote on Wednesday. ‘Everyone has their own working method and I sometimes look at it with amazement.’
Opposition party PvdA also points to Mark Rutte. Together with GroenLinks of Jesse Klaver, the party wants to form a list for the elections to the House of Representatives. ‘It is time for change in the Netherlands,’ says Klaver. ‘Time for a left-wing, social and green cabinet’, PvdA leader Attje Kuiken adds. PvdA and GroenLinks also worked together during the last provincial elections in March and recently formed a joint group in the Senate. It is not yet clear who will take on the leadership role.
‘Campaign started’
The other opposition parties are also already in campaign mode. ‘The campaign has started!’ writes BoerBurgerBeweging leader Caroline van der Plas literally in response to the fall of the government. ‘Our voters are hanging BBB flags everywhere and the NL flag is straight again.’ PVV leader Geert Wilders speaks of a ‘joyful’ moment. He calls on his supporters to vote for his party and promises, among other things, ‘clear path for our farmers and fishermen’. Wilders says he is ‘ready’ to step into a new cabinet, and does not exclude Rutte as a coalition partner or even as prime minister.
• Prime Minister Rutte is putting the government at risk for stricter asylum policy
But VVD party leader Sophie Hermans shows him the door. “I don’t see that happening, because we’ve said things about that before and nothing has changed.” According to Hermans, the PVV’s asylum proposals do not correspond at all with those of the VVD. ‘He wants to leave Europe, no one is allowed to come here anymore.’ She is willing to cooperate with the BBB, she says, if the party can make agreements and take steps forward.
What VVD, what Rutte?
Rutte’s own party is also disappointed. The Dutch State Secretary for Asylum Affairs Eric van der Burg could not hold back his tears last night. “I am disappointed that there is no agreement,” he said emotionally. He finds it especially annoying for all those people who have been working for months to ensure sufficient reception places for asylum seekers: the municipalities and the people in his cabinet. “I promised them an asylum deal.”
When asked whether his own VVD party leader and Prime Minister Mark Rutte has not unnecessarily put pressure on the negotiations, he does not want to comment. “I stay away from partisan politics.” Rutte has been in power in the Netherlands for ten years. His party is said to be thinking loudly about succession. According to RTL News, Rutte himself would be a candidate to make the list again.
2023-07-08 08:53:14
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