Dutch Minister Rita Verdonk lost her bid to lead the VVD liberal party and possibly the country on Wednesday as support seemed to fade over her handling of Somali-born Ayaan Hirsi Ali. The hardliner, dubbed "Iron Rita" for her tough stance on immigration, came under intense pressure after she decided to strip Hirsi Ali, an outspoken critic of Islam, of her citizenship two weeks ago for lying in her asylum application. Furious Dutch lawmakers forced the minister, part of the ruling centre-right coalition, to reconsider her decision over the next weeks on Hirsi Ali, a fellow VVD colleague. Hirsi Ali said she would step down as a lawmaker and leave the Netherlands.Verdonk's opponent Mark Rutte gained 51 percent of members' votes, whereas she gained 46 percent. Opinion polls had suggested that a VVD led by the high-profile minister would do much better in next year's Dutch general election than with Rutte at the helm. Verdonk, last year voted the Netherlands' most popular politician, congratulated Rutte and said she would support him. Opinion polls were not always reliable she said, though she added: "I would have liked to have found this out another way," Dutch news agency ANP reported.
With her plain-speaking and tough new policies on immigration, Verdonk gained widespread grass-roots approval although her populist traits irritated party elites. Some senior members of the VVD party, including Finance Minister Gerrit Zalm, publicly criticised her over her treatment of Hirsi Ali. Verdonk has introduced tough new citizenship tests, demanded the expulsion of 26,000 unsuccessful asylum seekers and recently rejected fast-track Dutch citizenship for Ivorian footballer Salomon Kalou to allow him to play in the soccer World Cup.