Government of Mark Rutte Falls: Immigration Disagreements Lead to Resignation

07.07.2023

The government of Mark Rutte, the longest-serving prime minister in the history of the Netherlands, fell due to disagreements over immigration. Will the far right, led by anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders, come to the fore again?

The government coalition in the Netherlands, led by Prime Minister Mark Rutte, collapsed on Friday (July 7), after only a year and a half in power, following disagreements over the necessary measures to limit immigrant flowaccording to the media.

Rutte announced that he would submit his government’s resignation after the differences over immigration between the pillars of the ruling coalition reached an insurmountable limit. “This evening, unfortunately, we have come to the conclusion that these differences cannot be overcome. For this reason, I will soon submit a written resignation to the king on behalf of the entire government,” Rutte said in a press conference.

Rutte, who is the longest-serving prime minister in the history of the Netherlands, oversaw discussions to resolve the crisis between the four partners in the coalition, which failed to reach an agreement, according to what was reported by the “NOS” and “RTL” channels and the local “ANB” agency. .

No official announcement was made in this regard by Rutte or members of the ruling coalition. An AFP correspondent said that the prime minister and representatives of the coalition had not yet left their meeting place to speak to the journalists waiting outside.

Rutte managed to stay in power for 12 years, despite the scandals. He formed his fourth coalition in January 2022 after 271 days of negotiations.

Rutte, 56, leader of the liberal right-wing People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy, wanted to restrict family reunification for asylum seekers, in the wake of last year’s scandal over overcrowded immigration centers in the Netherlands.

Rutte called for setting a ceiling for the relatives of immigrants from conflict countries that the Netherlands can receive at 200 people per month, and threatened to shut down the government if it refused, according to local media. However, the Christian Democratic Party, which is part of the ruling coalition, strongly opposed this plan.

The four parties of the coalition held crisis talks on Wednesday and until late Thursday in an attempt to save the faltering government, which has been in power for 18 months. But the settlement, which has been termed the “emergency button”, and requires the adoption of new restrictions only in the event of the arrival of large numbers of migrants, was not sufficient to make the last-minute talks a success on Friday.

Local media suggested that Rutte sought to take a hard line on immigration issues to absorb pressure from the more right wing of his party.

The prime minister has often found himself under increasing pressure on the issue of immigration due to the strength of far-right parties in the Netherlands, including the politician Anti-Islam Gert Wilders.

The longest ruling in Europe after Orban

It is expected that Rutte, who is the second in Europe in terms of the length of his tenure in the premiership among the current presidents, after the Hungarian Viktor Orban, will call for early elections through which he hopes to obtain support to form his fifth coalition government since 2010, but he may face internal competition over The background of the increasing frustration of voters about the length of time he spent in power, even in the absence of serious competitors for him.

Rutte, with his political acumen, succeeded in charting his path to the top of the pyramid in the Dutch executive power through four successive coalitions, but he faced a series of problems that almost overthrew his rule. His previous government was forced to resign in 2021 over a government aid scandal that mainly targeted children from ethnic minority families. In 2017, he was widely criticized for deviating to the right before the elections, in an effort to prevent a victory Wilders In a period that witnessed the rise of populist parties after the election of Donald Trump as president of the United States and the referendum on Britain’s exit from the European Union in 2016.

Kh.S/F.I (AFP)

In the Netherlands, refugees are behind prison bars due to the housing crisis

Associated Press photographer Mohamed Mohsen succeeded in capturing these images of refugees in prisons in the Netherlands. In this photo, the Syrian refugee Fadi Tahan is busy playing pieces on the Oud instrument in the courtyard of the old Harlem prison, while another group of refugees smokes in a smoking room in the middle of the prison.

In the Netherlands, refugees are behind prison bars due to the housing crisis

Perhaps the Afghan refugee Hamid Karmi did not have the opportunity in his country, Afghanistan, to practice his hobby of playing music, so he found in this prison a way to practice it to entertain himself and his wife, Farishta Morhami.

In the Netherlands, refugees are behind prison bars due to the housing crisis

Yazidi refugee Yasser Hajji (24 years old) shares with his wife one of the halls of Harlem prison, after they fled from the city of Sinjar, which ISIS invaded, killing men and capturing Yazidi women and children there.

In the Netherlands, refugees are behind prison bars due to the housing crisis

Algerian refugee Mohamed Ben Salem, 36, on the left, and Libyan refugee Amin Ouchi, 22, are enjoying the atmosphere and air of the Netherlands. The number of prisoners in the Netherlands has been declining significantly for several years, which has made many of its prisons empty, and some of them, such as Harlem Prison, cannot be demolished because it is an important architectural monument in the city.

In the Netherlands, refugees are behind prison bars due to the housing crisis

The Netherlands helped its neighbor, Belgium, by taking some Belgian prisoners and placing them in its empty prisons to alleviate the problem of overcrowded prisons in Belgium. However, after the arrival of thousands of refugees to the Netherlands, the authorities decided to take advantage of their empty prisons to solve the problem of housing and sheltering refugees there.

In the Netherlands, refugees are behind prison bars due to the housing crisis

Dutch prisons enjoy various amenities and have many arenas and games halls, in addition to being very safe for new “inmates”, and this is what made them ideal shelters for refugees, even if temporarily.

In the Netherlands, refugees are behind prison bars due to the housing crisis

The Afghan refugee Siratullah Hayatullah, 23, washes his clothes in a special place in the prison. The prison was transformed, the bars were removed from the doors of the rooms, and the walls surrounding the prisons were removed to accommodate the refugees.

In the Netherlands, refugees are behind prison bars due to the housing crisis

Associated Press photographer Muhammad Mohsen stated that the only complaint he heard was about the quality of food. As for housing, he did not hear any complaints, as each cell accommodates two people, and it contains a bathroom.

In the Netherlands, refugees are behind prison bars due to the housing crisis

Afghan refugee Shazia Lutfi, 19, lives on the third floor of the building. Refugees are free to enter and exit, provided they report their whereabouts every few days.

In the Netherlands, refugees are behind prison bars due to the housing crisis

Iraqi refugee Fatima Hussein (65 years old) prays in one of the prison halls designated for her. In 2015, about 59,000 refugees arrived in the Netherlands, most of them from Syria, Iraq and Eritrea.

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2023-07-08 07:56:25