The main message of this government: all our problems are the result of asylum seekers

It is the official motto of this cabinet: ‘inspired pragmatism’. The government wants to solve problems ‘step by step’, ‘with energy and enthusiasm, but also pragmatically and with a sense of reality’.

They are the typical Hague killers who put their brains in sleep mode for a while. It could easily be included in a coalition agreement of one of the Rutte cabinets. In this case, however, something special is going on. Because this cabinet is not pragmatic at all. He doesn’t want to solve any problems at all.

Pragmatism, if that word means anything, is about looking beyond your ideological beliefs to what works practically. It is a quality that PvdA members have long prided themselves on. They introduced market forces and made the labor market more flexible, not because they thought they could score points ideologically, but because it created growth economic and employment.

If you look closely, you will see that the opposite applies to this cabinet. He wants to score points ideologically by not solving headache files. The practical way to deal with the problems in the asylum chain is to organize reception correctly, with the law of diffusion. The cabinet wants to abolish that law.

Or take the bed-bath bread arrangement, an excellent pragmatic solution to a difficult problem. Because many asylum seekers who have exhausted all legal remedies cannot return. Minister Faber is eliminating funding, so that asylum seekers who have exhausted all legal remedies end up on the street. It causes a lot of inconvenience and reinforces the image of an asylum crisis. The PVV can score politically again. It’s an experimental radical right recipe we know from across the ocean: Donald Trump blocked immigration legislation from Biden and Harris to continue to score on immigration in the election campaign .

Declaring an asylum crisis when you already know this won’t hold up legally is pretty much the opposite of pragmatism. The ultimate goal is to score an ideological point, namely that the rule of law is an obstacle to a definitive asylum policy.

An important ideological driver of this government is that there are all kinds of government regulations that make effective intervention difficult. We heard King Willem-Alasdair read it obediently in the Speech from the Chair. ‘Many of the real problems we face, for example with migration, housing, agriculture and nature, can be traced back to a real complexity that has grown over the years with too many rules, procedures and the need for control. ‘ And a little more: ‘Too often people get the message that something is not possible or allowed for formal reasons, which makes them feel like they are losing control over their own lives.’

This is a specific ideological reading of the problems. The problem is not reducing reception capacity, but rules that protect the rights of asylum seekers. The problem is not removing spatial planning and public housing under the VVD cabinets, but building regulations. The problem is not the mega stables of intensive livestock farming with the excess of associated manure, but the nitrogen regulations. The government wants to take this analysis forward by bringing the situation to a political head. The ultimate goal is to get enough support to overturn the rules.

The government always pretends that it only listens to the people of the country, while it spreads secretly. When presenting the coalition agreement, Schoof spoke of ‘listening to the people who are in crisis of asylum’. But it is really the Schoof cabinet itself that always tries to influence the ‘asylum crisis’ frame in people’s minds. When asked about the end of the asylum crisis, Schoof replied that ‘the influx has decreased’ and access to ‘the housing market, health care and education has been normal’. This government’s main message (apart from its opposition to regulations) is this: almost all of our problems are due to asylum seekers. We see the same missionary journey in Wilders, Van der Plas and Yeşilgöz. They say that they always get apps from ‘the people’ on their phones. Actually, the people are always getting messages from this government through the media. For example, Caroline van der Plas emphasized at the APB that there was indeed an asylum crisis: ‘Our children can no longer leave home, we cannot get a home, we cannot start a family.’ This is a lie due to asylum seekers that Yeşilgöz and Wilders trumpeted earnestly during the campaign.

This government does not want to solve problems pragmatically at all. He wants to spread the radical right message. Even if the government could temporarily suspend parliament and the Aliens Act, this would not solve the problems in the housing market, health care and education. That is not the intention at all. It is not inspired pragmatism but a lie.

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