The Dutch Prime Minister, Mr. Mark Rutte, resigned on Friday evening local time after the coalition partners could not agree on a new law.
The Prime Minister met the Dutch king, King Willem-Alexander, on Saturday for about an hour at his official residence.
Mr. Mark Rutte,56, has been the Prime Minister of the Netherlands since October 2010. He is the longest serving Prime Minister in recorded Dutch history. He has led four coalition governments. The most recent of these was set up in January 2022. This is the government that has now collapsed.
What happens now?
The current cabinet will continue as caretaker government till elections are held. While no new policy decisions can be taken, the day-to-day administration of the country should continue as-is.
The Dutch Electoral Council (the body that conducts elections in the Netherlands, like we have the Election Commission in India) has said that the elections to the new Tweede Kamer (the Lower House of the Dutch parliament) cannot be held before mid-November, at least. The caretaker government will continue till then.
Why did the government fail?
The Netherlands received about 47,991 immigration requests last year. In 2021, that number was 36,260. Most of these applications are from Syria.
The total population of Netherlands is about 17 million.
Immigrants are already living in conditions that are not very good. The Prime Minister had made a statement that he is ‘ashamed’ after complaints were raised about the living conditions of the asylum seekers.
Therefore, Mr. Rutte wanted to limit the number of asylum seekers that the Netherlands would accept. The law would require families to wait for two years before their families could be given asylum.
The coalition parties could not agree to this change. Negotiations were held this week but they failed. This led to the government not retaining majority. Therefore, Mr. Rutte announced his resignation.
Image Credit: Twitter of Mr. Mark Rutte
How is the rest of Europe dealing with immigration?
ONLY in this report, the word ‘immigrants’ means people who have sought asylum in European nations as a result of persecution or conflict in their home countries. This includes Africa, Syria, Afghanistan, and other countries.
This month, France has seen widespread rioting by immigrants. The riots started after a police incident with an immigrant.
Poland has restricted immigration. Switzerland, too, has not taken too many asylum seekers.
Germany, under Chancellor Angela Merkel, absorbed thousands of refugees.
Italy, Greece, Malta, and Cyprus, in 2022, released a statement saying that they cannot absorb so many migrants.