Wilders:
PVV will quit unless cabinet delivers on immigration
May 26, 2025
https://www.dutchnews.nl/2025/05/wilders-pvv-will-quit-unless-cabinet-delivers-on-immigration/
Wilders gave
a rare press conference in The Hague to set out his demands.
Geert
Wilders has threatened to pull his far-right PVV party out of the Dutch
government unless the cabinet drastically steps up measures to cut asylum
within weeks.
Wilders
called on the four coalition parties to renegotiate the deal that they agreed
when they took office a year ago, with a promise to deliver the “harshest
asylum policy ever”.
“Our
patience has run out,” Wilders told a press conference in The Hague. “The
voters who made the PVV the biggest party have the right to a cabinet that
delivers, especially on asylum and immigration.”
Wilders
presented a 10-point plan to cut migration by enlisting the army to secure and
patrol the borders, close refugee accommodation facilities and send home all
Syrian refugees on the grounds that the country is no longer high-risk.
The PVV
leader also called for EU quotas on asylum to be suspended temporarily and a
total ban on children and other family members joining refugees who are already
in the Netherlands.
He said his
party, which is the largest in parliament with 37 of the 150 seats, would no
longer support the four-way coalition unless significant progress was made
before the summer.
Spreading
law
That
includes abolishing the so-called “spreading law”, which allows the government
impose quotas on local authorities if they do not provide enough accommodation
for settled refugees, and banning councils from giving refugees priority for
social housing.
Wilders’
alternative solution to end the bottleneck in refugee reception centres, which
the spreading law was designed to ease, is to force asylum seekers to leave if
they are given settled status, without stating where else they should live.
He said his
plan was “not a diktat, but it’s not obligation free. I’m not threatening
anything, but we will no longer yield to anyone.”
“Because
[NSC leader Pieter] Omtzigt and [VVD leader Dilan] Yesilgöz wouldn’t allow me
to be prime minister, we got a Schoof cabinet instead of a Wilders cabinet,”
Wilders said.
“But if it
behaves like a fifth Rutte cabinet and nothing changes, or not enough, we’ll be
gone.”
The press
conference is an unusual step for a politician who rarely makes public
appearances or gives interviews, and reflects Wilders’ frustration at the
cabinet’s lack of progress on asylum.
Plans
criticised
The
PVV-appointed minister for asylum, Marjolein Faber, has drafted three laws to
reform the system, all of which have been criticised by the Council of State,
the government’s official legal adviser.
Last month
the minister had to admit that she would not be able to cut €3.5 billion from
the immigration and asylum budget, as agreed in the September budget.
The Council
of State said it was not convinced by Faber’s claims that her plans would
reduce the number of refugees or make the asylum system more efficient.
A proposal
to create a two-tier system of refugees, separating people who faced
persecution from those fleeing war zones, risked creating more legal appeals
from those who were given the latter status, because it afforded them fewer
rights.
The
immigration service IND has also urged Faber to delay implementing the system,
while the justice ministry’s inspectorate attacked her for not consulting them
on her plans.
From next
year the Netherlands will also be required to implement the European Asylum and
Migration Pact. If Faber’s plans are not in line with EU guidelines, there
could be further problems in implementing the new laws and additional legal
proceedings, the Council of State warned.
The PVV’s
three coalition party colleagues have not yet commented on Wilders’ move, which
opposition parties have described as an act of desperation.
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