Dutch far-right lawmaker Geert Wilders' party has made a shock exit from the ruling coalition, collapsing the Netherlands' government. This has led to the remaining ministers forming a caretaker government until the next elections.
Wilders' hardline stance on immigration and the asylum policy was said to have differed from other parties in the coalition.
Following an emergency Cabinet meeting to discuss the crisis, Dutch PM Dick Schoof visited King Willem-Alexander to offer him the resignations of ministers from Wilders’ populist Party for Freedom (PVV).
“We have decided that there is now insufficient support for this government,” Schoof told reporters in The Hague after an emergency cabinet meeting, adding that he considered Wilders’ decision “irresponsible and unnecessary”, as per a Guardian article.
“We are facing major challenges nationally and internationally and, more than ever, decisiveness is required for the safety of our resilience and the economy in a rapidly changing world,” he added.
Elections are unlikely to take place anytime soon, due to which they will most probably take place in October, well after an upcoming NATO summit in the Netherlands—set to take place three weeks later—which will see the interim government represent the country.
“I signed up for the toughest asylum policy and not the downfall of the Netherlands,” Wilders told reporters. His Party for Freedom is still riding high in Dutch opinion polls, owing to frustration over migration and the high cost of living amid the Russia-Ukraine conflict (that has fractured Europe) and US President Donald Trump's protectionism.
Last week, Wilders demanded that coalition partners sign on to a 10-point plan that aimed to radically slash migration, warning of his party's exit if inaction over the plan continued. In an X post earlier on Tuesday, he followed through with his warning, stating that he had no other choice.
Wilders declared that he would lead the PVV in the next election later this year, with a view to become prime minister.
However, that will likely prove difficult in a fractured political landscape that saw the former coalition take new six months to establish itself, and then survive for just 11 months—one of the shortest-lived governments in Dutch political history.
