Dutch government collapses as Wilders' far-right party leaves coalition
The far-right Party for Freedom (PVV) is leaving the Netherlands' government over its policy for asylum-seekers, its leader Geert Wilders said on Tuesday, toppling the governing coalition.
'I signed up for the strictest asylum policy, not for the downfall of the Netherlands,' Wilders told reporters Tuesday morning. 'And our responsibility for this cabinet therefore ends here.'
The collapse of the governing coalition, the most right-leaning in Dutch history, means that the country will likely face new elections in the coming months.
Wilders' PVV was the clear winner of a November 2023 election. But a coalition accord struck after months of haggling dictated that, while his party would join the government, he would remain on the sidelines, in parliament.
The country's prime minister, Dick Schoof, who has clashed with Wilders over policy, has not yet commented on the PVV's withdrawal of support.
Wilders has a long history of anti-Islam and anti-immigrant rhetoric, He was convicted of discrimination after insulting Moroccan immigrants at a 2014 campaign rally, and his party calls for 'no Islamic schools, Qurans, and mosques.'
Wilders last week held a rare, formal press conference to present the government with an ultimatum for hardening the country's asylum policy – despite the fact that the minister for asylum and migration is a member of his own party.
'The PVV promised voters the strictest asylum policy ever, aiming to make it the strictest in all of Europe,' Wilders said Tuesday. 'We proposed a plan to close the borders to asylum seekers, to stop them, to send them away. To stop building asylum-seeker centers, to close them.'
But the coalition, he said, refused his proposals.
'I could do nothing other than say that we are now withdrawing our support for this cabinet.'
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