Far-right leader withdraws from coalition, collapsing Dutch government
Geert Wilders, the Dutch far-right leader, has pulled his PVV party out of the governing coalition, a move that is expected to collapse the right-wing government and trigger new elections.
Wilders said that his coalition partners were not willing to back his proposals to halt asylum migration.
"No signature under our asylum plans. The PVV leaves the coalition," Wilders announced in a post on X.
He also confirmed that he had informed Prime Minister Dick Schoof that all ministers from his PVV party would resign from the government.
Mr Schoof has yet to respond to the resignation.
The unexpected move by Mr Wilders brings an end to an already unstable coalition, which has struggled to find common ground since it was formed last July.
The likely outcome will be new elections in the coming months, adding to the political uncertainty in the Eurozone's fifth-largest economy.
It will likely also delay a decision on a possibly historic increase in defence spending to meet new NATO targets.
And it will leave the Netherlands with only a caretaker government when it receives NATO country leaders for a summit to decide on these targets in The Hague later this month.
Disbelief and anger
Mr Wilders' coalition partners responded with disbelief and anger.
"This is making us look like a fool," the leader of the conservative VVD party, Dilan Yesilgoz, said.
"There is a war on our continent. Instead of meeting the challenge, Wilders is showing he is not willing to take responsibility."
"This is incredible," leader of the centrist NSC party Nicolien van Vroonhoven said.
"It is irresponsible to take down the government at this point."
With PVV out, the others parties have the theoretical option to try and proceed as a minority government. They are not expected to, and have yet to confirm it.
Mr Wilders won the most recent election in the Netherlands, but recent polls show he has lost support since joining government.
Polls now put his party at around 20 per cent of the votes, roughly on par with the Labour/Green combination that is currently the second-largest in parliament.
Last week, Mr Wilders demanded immediate support for his proposals to completely halt asylum migration, send Syrian refugees back to their home country and to close asylum shelters.
Coalition partners did not embrace his idea, and had said it was up to the migration minister from Mr Wilders' own party to work on specific proposals.
Mr Wilders was not part of the government himself as its leader or a minister.
He was convicted for discrimination after he insulted Moroccans at a campaign rally in 2014 and only managed to strike a coalition deal with three other conservative parties last year after he gave up his bid to become prime minister.
Instead, the cabinet was led by the independent and unelected Mr Schoof, a career bureaucrat who had led the Dutch intelligence agency AIVD and was the senior official at the ministry of justice.
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