Article

2023-07-09 Europe

Dutch government collapses over bitter migration dispute

Key issues: illegal immigration and driving Dutch farmers out of business for the sake of the Holy Grail of reducing global warming.

[IsraelTimes] Prime Minister Mark Rutte resigns over ’insurmountable’ differences on immigration policy, heralding a stormy and divisive
...politicians call things divisive when when the other side sez something they don't like. Their own statements are never divisive, they're principled...
election campaign

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s coalition government collapsed Friday over "insurmountable" differences on how to tackle migration, with elections expected in November.

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Rutte, 56, the Netherlands’ longest-serving leader and one of Europe’s most experienced politicians, said days of crisis talks between the government’s four parties failed to produce a deal.

They fell out over Rutte’s plans to tighten curbs on reuniting families of asylum seekers, a bid to curb immigration numbers following a scandal last year over overcrowded migration centers.

"It is no secret that the coalition partners have very different views on migration policy," Rutte, the leader of the center-right VVD party, told a presser after talks broke down.

"This evening, we have unfortunately reached the conclusion that the differences are insurmountable. For this reason, I will shortly present my written resignation to the king in the name of the whole government," he said.

The government later confirmed he had presented his resignation and would visit King Willem-Alexander on Saturday.

The coalition was Rutte’s fourth since he took office in 2010. But it had only taken office in January 2022 after a record 271 days of negotiations and was deeply divided on many issues.

Rutte — dubbed "Teflon Mark" after the non-stick pan coating for his ability to avoid political catastrophe — added that he had the "energy" to stand for a fifth term but that he had to "reflect" first.

The earliest that elections can be held is in mid-November, the Dutch election commission said.

Rutte said he would lead a caretaker government until then that would focus on tasks including support for Ukraine.

The sudden collapse sparked bitter recriminations between the four parties in the year-and-a-half-old coalition, which had been dubbed "Rutte IV."

ChristenUnie — a Christian Democratic party that draws its main support from the staunchly Protestant "Bible Belt" in the central Netherlands — and center-left D66 had opposed Rutte’s plan.

He reportedly demanded that the number of relatives of war refugees allowed into the Netherlands be capped at 200 per month.

Rutte had promised to tackle migration after last summer’s migration centers scandal, during which a baby died and hundreds of people were forced to sleep in the open.

"The family, that children grow up with their parents, is a core value for us," said deputy prime minister Carola Schouten of ChristenUnie, adding it was "a very difficult moment."

Finance Minister Sigrid Kaag of D66 said there was "unnecessary tension in the process" and that the collapse was "regrettable."

Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra of the center-right Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) said the fall of the government was "very disappointing, unnecessary and inexplicable to the people of the country."

The Netherlands now faces one of its most stormy and divisive election campaigns in years.

The upstart BBB party, led by farmers who oppose the government’s European Union

...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
-backed environmental rules, will be seeking to repeat the success of senate elections that it won earlier this year.

Its leader, Caroline van der Plas, has refused to serve in a coalition with Rutte, and she didn’t rule out standing for the prime minister’s job if it wins the most seats in the general election.

Local media said Rutte had taken a tough stance on migration to deflect a challenge from the right wing of the VVD, whose voters the farmer party has begun to win over.

And Rutte has long been under pressure on the issue of migration due to the strength of far-right parties in the Netherlands, including that of anti-Islam leader Geert Wilders.

Posted by trailing wife 2023-07-09 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11130 views ] Top

#1 People who want to preserve the nature of their country are always "far right," aren't they?

Posted by EMS Artifact 2023-07-09 09:28|| 2023-07-09 09:28|| Front Page Top

#2 Key paragraphs from PJ Media’s much blunter take:

The Netherlands government, led for 12 years by Prime Minister Mark Rutte, has collapsed in acrimony over the issue of chain migration.

The crisis came to a head this week when two of Rutte’s coalition partners refused to back a plan to make it harder for refugee families to reunite. Rutte wanted to create a two-tier system for asylum seekers, differentiating between those fleeing persecution and those running from a war. More significantly, Rutte’s plan would have capped the number of family members who could join asylum seekers in the Netherlands at 200.

“We are the party that can ensure a majority to significantly restrict the flow of asylum seekers,” said Geert Wilders, leader of the anti-immigration Party for Freedom. Wilders supported Rutte’s coalition 13 years ago, but his withdrawal from the coalition has now brought the government down.

It’s not just the right that’s displeased with Rutte’s leadership. The left has been agitating for more action on climate change and issues like housing and chaos in the agricultural industry brought about by draconian policies designed to cut nitrogen from Dutch farms.

In fact, the new party, the Farmer-Citizen Movement, known by its Dutch acronym BBB, is celebrating tonight. It recently scored a shocking victory in provincial elections last March, winning enough seats in the Senate to become the largest bloc in that body. The Farmer-Citizen Movement is riding the crest of a populist wave of opposition to the nitrogen mandates and other issues that farmers feel have been neglected by the government.

But it’s what the government wants to do about chain migration that has fractured Rutte’s coalition.

Politico:

Asylum applications in the Netherlands jumped by a third last year to over 46,000, and are expected to increase to more than 70,000 this year — topping the previous high from 2015.

To improve the conditions in the country’s asylum facilities, Rutte’s party, supported by the conservative CDA, proposed limiting entrance for children of war refugees who are already in the Netherlands and making families wait at least two years before they can be united.

The Spectator reports that the election outcome will be up in the air.

The Netherlands experienced a rise in anti-government feeling during unpopular pandemic lockdowns and has historically low levels of trust in parliament after scandals including childcare benefits and the Groningen gas field. Support for ‘Caroline’s’ party could be seen through the many lime-green BBB flags and upturned Dutch flags hanging around the country.

Right-wing parties such as Geert Wilders’ PVV and new far-right party JA21, plus a potential new left wing coalition of the Dutch Green Left and Labour are flexing their muscles for a general election. The Netherlands could swing right, although it’s not impossible that it goes left. If the BBB, which is now in power in most regional coalitions, achieves a landslide in parliament, this will have huge implications for immigration, the future of farming and environmental policy.

I like the idea of huge implications, which is nothing like vast tracts of land... ;-)

Posted by trailing wife 2023-07-09 12:23|| 2023-07-09 12:23|| Front Page Top

#3 From American thinker Today, very pertinent on the whole issue of immigration which is actually colonization:

"Stepping back from the immediate circumstances in France, those of us who are the products of Western Civilization must face an uncomfortable reality. We have dominated the planet for almost four centuries, thanks to the military might that grew out of the scientific and technological revolutions with their origins in the Renaissance and Enlightenment. Gunpowder, firearms and cannons, and later steam engines, airplanes, and other industrial/technology marvels enabled Westerners to impose their will on other peoples... Resentments are natural, and the desire for vengeance... Thus, the world a few decades from now will be composed of far more people with cultural origins in societies that have resisted adaptation to the building blocks of mass prosperity... The demographic warning signs are so convincing that public attention must be diverted if the left is to remain in power and continue the policies that make these projections likely to be realized. "

link

Posted by NoMoreBS 2023-07-09 12:39|| 2023-07-09 12:39|| Front Page Top

#4 The socialist dominoes continue to fall.

Posted by Super Hose 2023-07-09 14:17|| 2023-07-09 14:17|| Front Page Top

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