Dutch government hanging by a thread over migration row
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Rutte, or "Teflon Mark" for dodging scandals and amassing 12 years in office, took control of his fourth coalition, the VVD party, in January 2022 after 271 days of negotiating.
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Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte in a press conference on the COVID-19 situation in The Hague, Netherlands, November 3, 2020 (AFP)
Local media stated that Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte's coalition is on the verge of collapsing, which makes the Netherlands the latest European government to struggle to cope with the migrant crisis.
Rutte, or "Teflon Mark" for dodging scandals and amassing 12 years in office, took control of his fourth coalition, the VVD party, in January 2022 after 271 days of negotiating.
But the center-right party is now conducting emergency talks with coalition partners following Rutte's proposal for a strict set of measures for asylum seekers.
Public broadcaster NOS released a headline stating that the "fall of the cabinet does not seem far away," adding that the PM was "on a collision course" with other coalition parties.
Media confirmed that coalition members convened on Wednesday and are due to do so again on Thursday with a possible vote at a council of ministers on Friday.
The VVD was threatened by Rutte to be withdrawn from the cabinet if the measure against asylum seekers does not go through, and "that would mean the end of the cabinet" and new elections, NOS said.
Read more: Over 2,000 migrants died crossing the Mediterranean in 2023: IOM
Negotiation tactics
Rutte's proposal involves making family reunifications more difficult for migrants fleeing persecution as opposed to those deemed personally threatened.
The Christen Unie, a Christian Democratic party, "cannot live" with the proposal, and center-left D66 led by Finance Minister Sigrid Kaag also opposed it. However, some coalition sources were quoted as saying that this was just a "negotiating tactic".
Migrant crises marred an EU summit last month where Poland and Hungary refused to go along with a revision of EU asylum rules.
As part of a last-minute compromise, it was decided that member states, not the EU as a whole, would decide which nation is "safe" for migrants who have been sent away because they are ineligible for asylum. The "connection" that must be demonstrated between a country and the nation to which a migrant is sent can be determined by the member state, according to diplomats.
This seems to offer each nation some leeway in deciding whether to allow the repatriation of migrants to third countries that not all EU members may believe are "safe havens".
Rutte's previous government was forced to quit en masse in 2021 due to a child benefits scandal that largely targeted ethnic minority families.
