Latest news with #governmentcollapse
Bloomberg
4 days ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Dutch Central Bank Warns Government Collapse Will Hit Economy
The fall of the Dutch coalition will negatively impact investment and consumption, according to the country's central bank. 'Although we should not exaggerate the impact of the government collapse, it does contribute to uncertainty, and that is not good for investments and consumption,' Olaf Sleijpen, the central bank's executive director of monetary affairs and financial stability, told reporters on Friday, adding that he can't put a number on it.
The Guardian
6 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Collapse of Dutch government leaves uncertainty on streets of Amsterdam
Ataa Bodin is glad that the Dutch government has fallen. 'It's good,' said the 34-year-old Syrian who lives in the Netherlands. 'I have a passport, the father of my daughter is Dutch but for other people it's difficult. They can't just go back to Syria like counting to three.' On Tuesday, far-right populist Geert Wilders collapsed his first government after failing to break open the coalition agreement to add 10 new policies on asylum – including deporting Syrians with temporary residency within six months, forcibly if necessary. Eleven months into a four-party coalition described by Dutch media as an 'unhappy marriage', Wilders walked out, resigning all of his ministers with immediate effect. His former coalition partners reacted with fury, saying there was no disagreement about reducing asylum and labelling Wilders a political footballer faking a foul. On the streets of south-east Amsterdam – where earlier this week an investigation revealed that children were sleeping in garages and cars because their parents could not find housing – there was a sense of both relief and confusion. Adjoining De Bijlmerhorst school, where one in 20 children have no fixed residence, parents were waiting for their children to exit the As-Souffah Islamic primary. For Ahmed Abubakar, 41, from Somalia and with five children, the fall of the government was confusing. 'I don't know if it's good news,' he said. 'We live in two rooms. I've been on WoningNet [social housing list] for 11 years.' Like most of the country's population, people seemed most concerned about issues such as the need to boost healthcare, build housing and control price-pumping. A snap online poll of 16,117 voters by current affairs programme EenVandaag found 60% were happy that Wilders had exited government. Supporters of leftwing parties were glad to see the end of the hard right coalition but the Freedom party's (PVV) own voters were divided, said pollster Rozemarijn Lubbe. 'Two-thirds of them say it's a good thing that he stepped away: they agree with the points that he wanted, like these 10 asylum points,' she said. 'They feel that he was sabotaged … actively opposed by the European Union, by opposition parties but also by other coalition parties. 'But 29% of PVV voters are not happy: some say Wilders and [his] asylum minister [Marjolein] Faber should have done more.' Trust in politics, which has for some years been at historic lows, slumped from 34% after the government was installed to just 23% on Tuesday. 'And it dropped with these specific rightwing voters,' she said. Experts suggest Wilders was exploiting a story in rightwing paper De Telegraaf in the middle of May suggesting immigration was adding 'a city a year', or 130,000 people, to the national population – although it failed to deduct almost 20,000 people who left in that period. Statistics Netherlands figures show the vast majority of immigration is labour migration rather than asylum – and like much of Europe, the Netherlands saw refugee numbers halve in early 2025. But the PVV wanted to collapse the coalition and was looking for an excuse to exploit its dominant issue, migration, according to Mark Thiessen, campaign strategist at Meute. 'After February the dominant narrative in society and politics completely changed … to geopolitics, security, people feeling insecure, and they're not favouring Wilders,' he said. Sign up to This is Europe The most pressing stories and debates for Europeans – from identity to economics to the environment after newsletter promotion 'For Wilders, [it] was always the best option to do it on immigration, because that is his topic.' Like all populists, Wilders thrives in political upheaval, even when he has caused it, said Léonie de Jonge, professor of research on rightwing extremism at the University of Tübingen in Germany. 'He thrives on chaos, but also on performing crises,' she said. 'And he has been performing this immigration crisis for the past years, and again, now trying to get that at the top of the agenda and of everyone's consciousness.' Political journalist Arjan Noorlander said Wilders – who has lived in 24/7 security for two decades, is sole party member and does not declare his funding sources – could not cope with his surprise win of 37 of 150 seats in November 2023 either. 'We know that Wilders has said: 'I feel like the chairman of an amateur snooker club: we weren't organised to get so many seats or take part in government,'' he said. 'Quite apart from the question of immigration, he just wanted to get out.' Business leaders told the Financieele Dagblad that the country was well rid of a government of 'economic bunglers', although the timing before a Nato summit in The Hague was unfortunate. Some PVV voters in south-east Amsterdam were disappointed with Wilders. 'It doesn't matter who is in government as long as there's good government,' said Mustafa, a Dutch-Turkish flower shop owner who did not wish to give his surname. 'Why is he stopping? I don't understand. Things were going so well for him. It's just a shame he sometimes says the wrong thing.'
Al Jazeera
6 days ago
- Business
- Al Jazeera
Why did the Dutch government collapse and what's next?
The Dutch government collapsed on Tuesday after far-right politician Geert Wilders pulled out of the right-wing coalition after a dispute over anti-immigration measures his party had proposed. Wilders' decision prompted the Dutch cabinet and Prime Minister Dick Schoof to resign. Here is what triggered the government's collapse, and what happens next: Wilders announced the withdrawal of his right-wing party, the Party for Freedom (PVV), from the 11-month-old right-wing Netherlands coalition government. Wilders said the other three parties in the coalition had failed to back his plans to crack down on asylum for refugees. 'No signature under our asylum plans. The PVV leaves the coalition,' Wilders wrote in an X post on Tuesday after a brief meeting in parliament with party leaders. Besides PVV, the coalition comprised People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), the Farmer-Citizen Movement (BBB) and the New Social Contract (NSC). On May 26, Wilders announced a 10-point plan to extensively slash migration, deploying army officials at the Dutch land borders and rejecting all asylum seekers. Wilders threatened, back then, that his party would pull out of the coalition if migration policy was not toughened. The four parties cumulatively held 88 seats in the country's 150-seat House of Representatives. The PVV won the latest November 2023 election with 23 percent of the vote and 37 seats, the highest number of seats in the parliament out of all parties. The majority mark in the House is 76 seats. The withdrawal leaves the coalition with only 51 seats. After Wilders announced the withdrawal, an emergency cabinet meeting was called. After this, Schoof announced that he would step down, hours after the PVV withdrawal. 'I have told party leaders repeatedly in recent days that the collapse of the cabinet would be unnecessary and irresponsible,' Schoof said in the emergency cabinet meeting. 'We are facing major challenges both nationally and internationally that require decisiveness from us.' Other leaders in the coalition called Wilders 'irresponsible' and blamed him for putting his own political interests ahead of the country. 'There is a war on our continent. Instead of meeting the challenge, Wilders is showing he is not willing to take responsibility,' said Dilan Yesilgoz, leader of the VVD, which has 24 seats in the the House. 'It is irresponsible to take down the government at this point,' NSC leader Nicolien van Vroonhoven said about Wilders. The NSC has 20 seats. Head of the opposition GreenLeft-Labour alliance Frans Timmermans said he could 'see no other way to form a stable government' than early elections. Schoof will now formally submit his resignation to the head of state, Dutch King Willem-Alexander. After this, elections are expected to be called. It is likely that the election will be held sometime in October or November, based on previous cycles. As of May 31, polls show that Wilders' PVV has lost a little of its support, from 23 percent in the 2023 election to 20 percent. This brings the party almost at par with the GreenLeft-Labour alliance, which has 19 percent of support and 25 seats in the lower house of parliament, the second highest number of seats after the PVV. The fragmented politics of the Netherlands makes it difficult to predict which party will win the election. It is unlikely for a single party to win the 76-seat majority and it takes months for a coalition to form. According to the Dutch election authority's data, no single party has ever won a majority since the first direct elections in 1848. Schoof has said he and the other ministers of the coalition will continue with their positions in a caretaker government until a new government is formed after elections. The political crisis comes as the Netherlands is scheduled to host a summit of NATO leaders at The Hague on June 24-25. Mark Rutte, the current secretary-general of NATO, was the prime minister of the Netherlands from 2010 to 2024. Rutte was affiliated with the VVD. Schoof had also been involved in European efforts to provide support to Ukraine in its war against Russia. In February, the Dutch PM was present at a meeting with other European leaders in Paris where the leaders pledged to provide Ukraine with security guarantees.
News24
7 days ago
- Business
- News24
‘The demise of the Netherlands': Dutch government collapses as Wilders quits over immigration
The Dutch government collapsed after the resignation of Geert Wilders. New elections will likely be held in October. Wilders accused other parties of failing to back immigration policies. The Dutch government collapsed on Tuesday, most likely ushering in a snap election, after anti-Muslim politician Geert Wilders quit the right-wing coalition, accusing other parties of failing to back his tougher immigration policies. But Prime Minister Dick Schoof, an independent, accused the political maverick of irresponsibility, and the other coalition parties denied failing to support Wilders, saying they had been awaiting proposals from his PVV party's own migration minister. PVV ministers will quit the cabinet, leaving the others to continue as a caretaker administration until an election unlikely to be held before October. Frustration with migration and the high cost of living is boosting the far right and widening divisions in Europe, just as it needs unity to deal effectively with a hostile Russia and an unpredictable and combative US president in the form of Donald Trump. 'I have told party leaders repeatedly in recent days that the collapse of the cabinet would be unnecessary and irresponsible,' Schoof said after an emergency cabinet meeting triggered by Wilders' decision. 'We are facing major challenges both nationally and internationally that require decisiveness from us,' he added, before handing his resignation to King Willem-Alexander. The prospect of a new election is likely to delay a decision on boosting defence spending and means the Netherlands will have only a caretaker government when it hosts a summit of the transatlantic NATO alliance this month. Wilders said he had had no option but to quit the coalition. 'I proposed a plan to close the borders for asylum seekers, to send them away, to shut asylum shelters. I demanded coalition partners sign up to that, which they didn't. That left me no choice but to withdraw my support for this government,' he told reporters. I signed up for the strictest asylum policies, not for the demise of the Netherlands. Geert Wilders He said he would lead the PVV into a new election and hoped to be the next prime minister. An election is now likely at the end of October or in November, said political scientist Joep van Lit at Radboud University in Nijmegen. Even then, the fractured political landscape means formation of a new government may take months. It remains to be seen whether right-wing voters will see the turn of events as Wilders' failure to turn his proposals into reality, or rather decide that he needs a bigger mandate to get his way, van Lit said. Simon Otjes, assistant professor in Dutch politics at Leiden University, said the PVV must have calculated that the next election would be seen as a referendum on immigration policy, 'because they know they would win that'. Amsterdam resident Michelle ten Berge hoped that 'with the new election we will choose ... a government that's more moderate'. But florist Ron van den Hoogenband, in The Hague, said he expected Wilders to emerge the winner and take control of parliament 'so he can do like Trump is doing and other European countries where the extreme right is taking over'. Wilders won the last election in November 2023 with an unexpectedly high 23% of the vote. Opinion polls put his party at around 20% now, roughly on a par with the Labour/Green combination that is currently the second-largest grouping in parliament. Wilders had last week demanded immediate support for a 10-point plan that included closing the borders to asylum seekers, sending back refugees from Syria and shutting down asylum shelters. He also proposed expelling migrants convicted of serious crimes and boosting border controls. Migration has been a divisive issue in Dutch politics for years. The previous government, led by current NATO secretary general Mark Rutte, also collapsed after failing to reach a deal on restricting immigration. Wilders, a provocative politician who was convicted of discrimination against Moroccans in 2016, was not part of the latest government himself. He only managed to strike a coalition deal with three other conservative parties last year after agreeing not to become prime minister. Instead, the cabinet was led by the unelected Schoof, a career civil servant.
Irish Times
7 days ago
- Business
- Irish Times
The Irish Times view on the Dutch government's collapse: not unexpected
It took six months of protracted negotiations to form the current Dutch government. Now, just 11 months later, it appears to have collapsed following the abrupt withdrawal of far-right leader Geert Wilders's Freedom Party (PVV) from the four-way coalition with the populist Farmer-Citizens Movement (BBB), the centrist New Social Contract (NSC) and the centre-right People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD). The return of political uncertainty to the Netherlands is not unexpected. It reflects the growing volatility of coalition politics across Europe and the hazards of appeasing populism in the corridors of power. From the outset, the coalition was an uneasy marriage. The inclusion of the PVV, the Netherlands' largest party but long considered politically untouchable due to its anti-immigrant, anti-Islam platform, was a sharp pivot from the Dutch tradition of moderate centrism and careful consensus. It was justified as a necessary compromise to secure stability. Yet bringing the far-right into government did not domesticate its ambitions. It merely moved the arena of disruption from the opposition benches to the cabinet table. The collapse was triggered by the government's failure to accept Wilders's 10-point plan to radically reduce immigration and asylum, which legal experts say would have breached European law. It leaves Dilan Yesilgöz's VVD in an awkward position. The party had gambled on pragmatism over principle, hoping to neutralise extremism through inclusion. Instead, it has found itself destabilised by it, with public trust in government eroded further by scenes of ministerial disarray. The broader lesson is stark. The Netherlands, like much of Europe, faces a fracturing political landscape. Electoral fragmentation and the rise of ideologically extreme parties mean that coalitions are now brittle, stretched thin across deep ideological divides. READ MORE With prime minister Dick Schoof's resignation, voters must now brace themselves for a snap election. The challenge will be forming a government with enough coherence and conviction to hold.
