After nearly six months of negotiations, involving five informers or scouts to try and reconcile the views of four parties, a near-breakup in February and, in the end, a victory for Geert Wilders and his far-right party: The Netherlands is set to put an end to the era of Mark Rutte, the liberal prime minister who has governed since 2010. On Wednesday, May 15, Wilders described it as a historic day for his Party for Freedom (PVV).
The leader of the populist, anti-immigration party, who won 37 out of 150 seats in Parliament in the November 2023 elections, reached an agreement on Wednesday with the liberals of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), the Farmer-Citizen Movement (BBB) and the center-right New Social Contract (NSC).
The talks ended just a few hours before the deadline set by Elbert Dijkgraaf and Richard van Zwol, the two negotiators who wanted to hand over their conclusions to the MPs of the second chamber by Wednesday evening at the latest. Van Zwol, a senior Christian Democrat civil servant, will form the next coalition, the composition of which, he announced, will not be known for at least another four weeks.
The broad outlines of the future team's program, summarized in a 20-page memo, were unveiled on Wednesday evening. They were approved by all four parties, despite the reluctance of some members of the VVD and Pieter Omtzigt's NSC, hostile to the principle of collaboration with the far right. However, the leaders of these two parties overcame their misgivings, arguing that it was impossible to deny the will expressed by a quarter of the electorate.
The new government plans to chart a new course, believing that citizens' concerns, especially about migration, have not been taken seriously in recent years. Migration was a central theme in the election campaign and negotiations. The PVV obtained the strictest regime for asylum, including an emergency law that would keep all applications pending for two years. Such a provision would clearly contravene European rules. The distribution of asylum seekers throughout the country, recently imposed by Rutte's resigning government, will be repealed.
The program also calls for tighter border controls, swifter expulsions, restrictions on family reunification and the adjustment of provisions regarding temporary residence. The right of permanent residence in the kingdom is to be abolished, and labor immigration is to be further regulated, as is the residence of foreign students. The use of the Dutch language in higher education will be encouraged. Refugees and asylum seekers will lose their privileged access to social housing.
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