Dutch Coalition Government of Mark Rutte Disintegrates Amid Immigration Disput

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said Friday that his coalition government was dissolving due to “insurmountable” disagreements on immigration control measures.

Days of crisis negotiations between the four coalition parties were facilitated by Rutte, 56, the longest-serving leader of the Netherlands, but no agreement could be reached.

Following the collapse of the coalition, which is Rutte’s fourth since 2010, the Netherlands is scheduled to conduct elections in November. The coalition had only been in existence since January 2022 as the result of protracted talks.

Rutte, the head of the center-right VVD party, said during a news conference: “We have sadly come to the decision that the gaps are irreconcilable.

“As a result, I will present my written resignation to the king in the name of the entire government in the near future.”

Rutte said that he needed to “reflect” first, but claimed he had the “energy” to run for a fifth term.

‘NOT A HAPPY MARRIAGE’ –

Following a crisis involving overcrowded immigration centers in the Netherlands last year, Europe’s second-longest-serving leader, Viktor Orban of Hungary, intended to tighten restrictions on reuniting families of asylum applicants.

According to local media, Rutte, who has been mocked as “Teflon Mark” for his political sloppiness, has adopted a harsh position on immigration to head off a challenge from his party’s right wing.

He allegedly threatened to overthrow the government if the bill was not passed and requested that the monthly ceiling on the number of relatives of war refugees admitted into the Netherlands be set at 200.

Last year, the partnership, described as “not a happy marriage” by local media, dealt with a significant crisis involving overcrowded immigration centers where a baby died and hundreds of others were forced to sleep outside.

After what he termed “shameful scenes” in the refugee centers, Rutte had pledged a “structural solution” to the issue.

However, the Christen Unie, a Christian Democratic party that receives the majority of its support from the adamantly Protestant “Bible Belt” in the center of the Netherlands, was vehemently opposed to the idea of capping the number of refugees with family.

After three days of negotiations, a concession on a “emergency button” that would only have released the limits in the event of a significant influx of migrants was not sufficient to secure an agreement on Friday.

– “WORRIED”

An AFP reporter said that spectators started to swarm the government buildings where the negotiations were taking place in The Hague’s historic center.

“I’m quite worried. The next cabinet’s design worries me, remarked Marijn Philippo, a 19-year-old IT worker.

“I hope that the next cabinet will do better than this one, especially in terms of asylum,” said 32-year-old Pieter Balkenende.

Due to the dominance of far-right parties in the Netherlands, especially that of anti-Islamic leader Geert Wilders, Rutte has long been under pressure on the topic of immigration.

Elections are also expected to be turbulent after an independent party headed by farmers who opposed the government’s environmental regulations supported by the European Union gained the most seats in the senate earlier this year.

Rutte has managed to ascend to the top of four different coalition administrations in a row thanks to his backroom political maneuvering, but not without experiencing some narrow escapes.

A child benefits scam that mostly affected ethnic minority families led to the collective resignation of his former administration in 2021.

He received harsh criticism in 2017 for shifting to the right before elections in an effort to block Wilders from winning, at a time when populist parties were on the rise in the aftermath of the Brexit vote in 2016 and Donald Trump’s victory.