VVD members agree with the distribution law

This was Saturday’s vote at this year’s second VVD congress. It seemed to be an exciting conference ahead because the opponents of the distribution law made a lot of noise. With this ‘coercive law’, municipalities can be forced to give hospitality to groups of asylum seekers.

Due to the media and social media uproar, there was a large turnout: some 1,500 members gathered on Saturday in the former Van Nelle factory in Rotterdam, many with proxies to vote on appeals to the parliamentary party on policy.

All attention was focused on two motions, one in favor and one against the distribution law. The motion in favor was approved with 77 percent of the more than 1,800 votes, the motion against was rejected by 76 percent. “It helps a lot to be able to continue with the law,” VVD State Secretary Eric van der Burg, who is responsible for asylum, said later. A potential divisive issue in the party and coalition has been defused.

The sting, the dispersal law motions, were quickly drawn from the tightly orchestrated congress. A defeat for the party leadership was to be avoided at all costs.

Influx and flow of asylum seekers

The congress opened with a speech by Mark Rutte. After arguing that Russia should lose the war in Ukraine – “A war in Europe is about our values. Otherwise he won’t stop because Russia wants to go back to the borders of the Soviet Union’ – he has come to the question of asylum. The influx of asylum seekers is “two to three times higher than normal”. He underlined the agreement signed with Turkey in 2016 on limiting the flow of asylum seekers to Europe.

Subsequently, the attention eased, Rutte acknowledged, also due to the corona crisis. But in recent days Rutte was at the climate summit in Egypt and at the G20, the conference of Indonesia’s twenty largest economies. There he spoke to colleagues from Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria about the possibility of taking back rejected asylum seekers. We are working on the influx, Rutte just wanted to say.

This was still met with distrust by the shareholders, as emerged from the discussion of the two motions on the distribution law. “It’s not about limiting influx in the coalition deal.” Another denounced D66 and ChristenUnie, who don’t want to do ‘anything’ about the influx. But members who were embarrassed when Médecins Sans Frontières had to work at the Ter Apel candidacy center also moved. “Liberals don’t let children sleep in the grass.”

Henk Kamp from Twente

During the discussion of the motions, strategically positioned prominent personalities took the floor: ‘Henk Kamp from Twente’, recognized right-wing swordsman on migration but before the dispersion law, as well as ‘Klaas Dijkhoff from Breda’, the former Undersecretary of State for Asylum Affairs, and Malik Azmani, now a member of the European Parliament but previously also co-architect of the Turkey affair.

It worked. A further advantage of the attention and discussions that preceded the congress is that the debate is alive again in the VVD. The VVD was once known as a “debate party”, but in recent years the congress has turned into a cheering machine due to the long government.

A first impetus for a resumption of the debate within the VVD was given during the congress earlier this year in Halfweg. During that first physical conference since the corona crisis, a minimal majority turned against the nitrogen policy. Shocked, Rutte now flattered the congress. “Not a few people call the shots.” This was followed by the election of Eric Wetzels as chairman and not the board candidate, Onno Hoes.

It seems that many members had come to Rotterdam to prevent the party from being hijacked by opponents of the hard-won compromise on the dispersion law. “I let go of the last congress. It won’t happen to me twice,” said one insider over lunch.