Major challenges ahead for right-wing Dutch government

 

Major challenges ahead for right-wing Dutch government

January 2, 2025

https://www.dutchnews.nl/2025/01/major-challenges-ahead-for-right-wing-dutch-government/

 

The right-wing Dutch cabinet – a combination of the far-right PVV, pro-countryside BBB, liberal VVD, and conservative NSC – made it to 2025, something which many commentators had doubted would happen.

 

Nevertheless, it faces a number of major challenges in the coming months. Here’s a summary:

 

“Spreading” law

The legislation, which aims to ensure all 342 Dutch local authorities provide accommodation for their fair share of refugees, is at the top of the government’s “to-go” list.

 

The “spreading law” legislation does now seem to be working, and most local authorities want it to stay in place. However, asylum minister Marjolein Faber is determined to see it scrapped

 

That is easier said than done. Legislation can only be withdrawn once the Council of State has had its say, and with the agreement of both houses of parliament. The coalition does not have a majority in the upper house, and the original legislation made it through the senate with the help of the VVD.

 

It is extremely uncertain if the senate will vote to withdraw popular legislation it passed a year ago.

 

Asylum in general

Just before the Christmas break, Faber published three pieces of legislation to enact the “strictest refugee policy ever”. But many of the plans are controversial, and the Council of State, which has to assess all new legislation, has already warned about some of them.

 

Support in the upper house of parliament is also open to question, particularly if the government presses ahead with measures which could be deemed unconstitutional or in conflict with international treaties.

 

Spring financial statement

The new government was rushed to put its 2025 financial plans into concrete measures ahead of the September budget presentation and delayed a number of plans until the spring. The spring statement is also when ministers do a double-check on their figures to make sure they really are balancing the books.

 

The cabinet has agreed that all extra expenditure must be offset by cuts elsewhere. But ministers still need to find a way to pay for the decision not to increase value-added tax on cultural activities, newspapers, and sport, as demanded by the opposition.

 

The decision to take some of the money from the health ministry budget enraged health minister Fleur Agema, who represents the far right PVV.

 

Nitrogen-based pollution

The nitrogen pollution problem has been hanging over the Netherlands for years and the new cabinet scrapped a number of the plans made by the previous administration to reduce the levels of nitrogen emitted by farming in particular.

 

The Dutch intensive farming sector is struggling to deal with reductions in the amount of manure farmers are allowed to spread on their fields, because of the risk of leaching into the waterways and the high concentration of nitrogen. Farmers are now being forced to pay high fees to have the manure disposed of in other ways.

 

Brussels has made exceptions for the Netherlands in the past, but that situation is unlikely to continue.

 

An added problem is the decision by environmental group Greenpeace to take the issue to court.

 

Housing crisis

The new government is committed to continuing the previous administration’s 100,000 new homes-a-year project, and housing minister Mona Keijzer recently published a string of proposals to cut red tape, which she hopes will kickstart the process.

 

But experts say there is little new in her plans and that without more government funding – and that includes spending on the electricity grid – the target will still not be met.

 

Her one formal proposal – to end the bat and nest-box requirement for all new homes – was widely dismissed as irrelevant, and MPs voted to keep the ruling in place.

 

Bad relationships

The relationship between the four parties is bad and has been since the beginning, and none of the party leaders are shy about making pointed comments about the other.

 

In the run-up to the Christmas break, NSC leader Pieter Omtzigt made snide remarks about the PVV’s plan to make owning a Koran a criminal offence. PVV leader Geert Wilders stayed silent, but BBB chief Caroline van der Plas was quick to say Omtzigt was talking nonsense.

 

Then this week, VVD leader Dilan Yesilgöz told current affairs show EenVandaag that she wished Wilders would stop using social media as a sounding board.

 

“Personally, I don’t think this is appropriate for the leader of the biggest party in parliament,” she said. Wilders then said on social media that the interview was “unbelievably untruthful” and a question of PVV-bashing.

 

Parliament resumes after the winter break on January 13.