Dutch government collapses after ‘toxic’ row over immigration measures

The Dutch government collapsed on Friday evening after 48 hours of “toxic infighting” over immigration between the four parties of prime minister Mark Rutte’s coalition – with asylum applications due to rise 50 per cent this year.

Mr Rutte has been under pressure from his own Liberal (VVD) party to bring immigrant numbers down. As the toughest talks so far between the coalition partners broke up at 2am on Friday, there was no sign that he was willing to give way, even if it meant going to the polls.

By far the longest serving Dutch premier, now leading his fourth consecutive coalition, Mr Rutte is known as a facilitator. However, as the latest talks ended, colleagues said he seemed uncharacteristically “willing to let the government fall” if agreement were not reached.

“Rutte seems to be on a collision course”, said one negotiator for the Christian Democrats, the second largest party. “He seems to be pushing for a crisis.”

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This was dismissed by a spokesperson for the Liberals, who responded: “Rutte is not seeking conflict. He just knows this is a decision that needs to be made now.”

At the heart of the impasse was a proposal from Mr Rutte to introduce a “two-status” streaming system for asylum seekers, where those with A status would be allowed permanent residence, and those with B status would be allowed temporary residence.

In broad terms, those allocated A status would include migrants trying to escape long-term persecution or death in their own countries, while those fleeing war or political unrest would be considered B status applicants.

However – after eight months of negotiations leading to this point – the contentious question then arises as to whether those with B status should be entitled to bring family members to the Netherlands to be reunited.

Insofar as the details became clear, under the Rutte proposals a maximum of 200 family members of those with B status would be allowed to come to the Netherlands each month – but there would be a waiting time of two years before they received that clearance.

The opposition, however, was immediate. D66 leader and deputy prime minister, Sigrid Kaag, said they rejected the proposal on “humanitarian” grounds.

Christian Union, the smallest of the coalition partners, agreed, saying it was “anti-family”.

There were reliable reports that the prime minister “apologised” to the other parties on Friday for his earlier uncompromising attitude.

Even so, with parliament in summer recess since Thursday evening, it remained unclear how the talks could progress productively with no sign of willingness to compromise.

As one commentator observed on Friday evening: “It was never a happy marriage.”

Applications for asylum in the Netherlands rose by one-third last year to over 46,000 and are expected to top 70,000 this year.