Eleven months after its ministers were sworn in, the four-party right-wing Dutch coalition government led by Geert Wilders’s Freedom Party has collapsed in a bitter row over immigration – the same issue that brought down the previous government in 2023.
The collapse effectively leaves the Netherlands without a government three weeks before a Nato summit in The Hague, due to be attended by 45 world leaders, including US president Donald Trump.
After issuing an ultimatum to his coalition partners last week that was met mainly with scepticism, Mr Wilders announced his party’s immediate departure on Tuesday. A general election is not expected until after the summer.
The reason, he said, was other parties had refused to support his latest 10-point plan aimed at giving the Netherlands the toughest immigration and asylum restrictions in the country’s history, as promised in his party’s programme for government.
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“No signatures to our plan, no changes to our main agreement, so the Freedom Party is leaving the coalition,” the far-right leader wrote in a post on X, after inconclusive emergency meetings of the coalition parties on Monday evening and again on Tuesday morning.
He said he had informed prime minister Dick Schoof that his ministers would withdraw from the cabinet with immediate effect – leaving the government without a majority.
The coalition comprised of the Freedom Party, the centre-right VVD, farmers’ representative BBB and New Social Contract (NSC). It has faced sharp criticism from the Council of State, government departments and state organisations for the unworkability of many of its plans.
I see no other way to form a stable government
— Frans Timmermans
Mr Wilders’s most recent demands include the suspension of EU asylum quotas and the sealing of Dutch borders by the army. He has also pushed for all Syrian refugees to be sent home and those already granted visas to be “evicted” from reception centres, even without alternative accommodation.
Although he made his intentions clear at a press conference last week, Mr Wilders’s coalition partners responded with disbelief and anger to his announcement on Tuesday.
“There is a war on our continent”, said VVD leader, Dilan Yesilgoz. “Instead of rising to that challenge, Wilders is showing he is not willing to take responsibility. It’s all about his ego. He just does whatever he wants.”
Normally a staunch supporter of Mr Wilders, BBB leader Caroline van der Plas described the collapse as “irresponsible”, observing: “He had all the trumps in his hand, yet he just pulls the plug.”
Nicolien van Vroonhoven, the leader of NSC, said the decision was “incomprehensible”.
Without the Freedom Party, the remaining coalition parties could try to remain as a minority government, but this was ruled out by Mr Schoof following a two-hour cabinet meeting when he branded Mr Wilders’s departure “irresponsible and unnecessary”.
The former head of the Dutch security service said he planned to hand his resignation to King Willem-Alexander before the end of Tuesday, but would remain as caretaker premier alongside the cabinet’s non-Freedom Party ministers.
Opposition leader Frans Timmermans, who heads the recently amalgamated Labour-GreenLeft, said new elections were the only remaining option.
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“I see no other way to form a stable government,” he said. “It’s time for an election. We’re ready.”
Mr Wilders responded on X saying the Freedom Party would fight the autumn election – and claimed he would become prime minister afterwards.
His party won the November 2023 general election with a wide margin of 23 per cent of the vote – although he appears to have lost ground in coalition.
After 336 days in office, polls put him at about 20 per cent of the vote, roughly on a par with closest rivals, Labour-GreenLeft, the second largest party in the 150-seat parliament.
