THE HAGUE - The Cabinet may again be on the verge of collapse over the asylum issue. PVV leader Geert Wilders threatened to have the voters go back to the polls if the Cabinet doesn’t get moving toward his “strictest asylum policy ever,” and he said his parliamentary faction has unanimously decided to reject any changes to the recent asylum laws pushed by the coalition Cabinet. Should the three coalition partners decide to change them, "it is over for this Cabinet," Wilders threatened. But NSC parliamentarian Nicolien van Vroonhoven isn’t overly concerned, she told AD after the weekly meeting between the coalition leaders on Tuesday.
The latest stumbling block is the Council of State’s criticism of two laws by Asylum Minister Marjolein Faber - the Two-Status System Act and the Asylum Emergency Measures Act. The Council of State called the bills “carelessly” prepared and ineffective and urged the Minister not to submit them to parliament in their current form.
Wilders has had to give up on his dream of declaring an asylum crisis and warned multiple times in the run-up to the Council of State’s advice that the PVV has done enough compromising. On Monday, he said Faber’s bills must go to parliament without “amendments” and with “great urgency.”
The PVV followed that up on Tuesday, with the increased threat regarding his faction in the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of Parliament. Prime Minister Dick Schoof, who is not a member of any political party, said Tuesday that "improvements" are always possible, but that he wants to leave it up to Faber first. Wilders responded that he found Schoof's remarks unclear, saying he would support the Cabinet if it found a way to add 50 million euros to the budget of the immigration and naturalization agency, IND. The limited capacity at IND was among the concerns raised by the Council of State.
The PVV is the largest party in the coalition, and in the Tweede Kamer as a whole, having won 37 seats in the election in November 2023. Recent polling from the end of January showed the PVV would likely maintain its level of support if elections were held today amid a collapsed Cabinet, but the VVD, BBB and NSC would all lose seats in the lower house to the point where a majority would be unlikely.
The NSC would be hit quite hard in new elections, according to the Ipsos I&O poll, conducted with Verian and EenVandaag. More support would return to the center-right CDA, as well as centrist parties D66 and Volt, and left-wing parties SP, PvdD and Denk.
With its insistence on good governance and carefully prepared laws, the NSC has often clashed with Wilders’ far-right PVV, and this was again the case on Monday. Pieter Omtzigt's party said that the Cabinet should carefully consider the Council of State’s comments. Wilders responded that NSC and Omtzigt were “playing with fire,” posting on X. “After giving up on the Crisis Act, no more amendments. Otherwise, the voter can speak again.”
On Tuesday, before the PVV faction vote was announced, NSC parliamentarian Van Vroonhoven said that she was “not uneasy” about those words. “That is how we know him, isn’t it? We also want to have a strict asylum policy, but then we have to make sure that the laws ensure this and are also enforceable.” She didn’t consider Wilders’ words threatening. “Not at all. When Mr. Wilders uses these kinds of terms on X, I don’t get excited or upset about it.”
As has typically been the case in this coalition, BBB leader Caroline van der Plas supported Wilders. According to her, the laws need no amendments or changes. “Not as far as we are concerned. We simply believe that we need to make progress. Such a C-advice from the Council of State is not unique at all. It is an opinion.” She said that the Affordable Rent Act also received a C-advice from the Council and still passed through parliament and the Senate.
VVD leader Dilan Yeşilgöz said that the tweet was "unnecessary and irresponsible." She added that the PVV leader's comments are getting tiring, and that this all costs "a lot of time and energy." Yeşilgöz repeated her party's wishes for the asylum measures to be implemented quickly.
The two-status system divides asylum seekers into people who are persecuted for their political views, religion, or sexual orientation, and people fleeing from war and violence, with the latter group receiving fewer rights. The Asylum Emergency Measures Act stipulates, among other things, that permanent residence permits will be abolished and that residence permits will have a shorter term.
An opinion from the Council of State can range from A to D, which indicates the extent to which the bills are legally tenable and implementable. A C-advice means that the bills could be submitted after some adjustments.
