The Government of Mark Rutte in the Netherlands collapsed on July 7, 2023 over the immigration issue ahead of the General Election, scheduled to be held in November this year. The 56-year-old longest-serving Dutch Premier is popularly known as one of prudent politicians in Europe.

Rutte resigned as Prime Minister after talks between the four political parties, constituting the decision-making authority, failed to find any solution. He admitted that the parties were unable to bridge their differences on how to handle the immigration issue that has become increasingly divisive in the Netherlands. The AFP quoted Prime Minister Rutte as saying: “It is no secret that the coalition partners have very different views on Migration Policy. This evening, we have unfortunately reached the conclusion that the differences are insurmountable. For this reason, I will shortly present my written resignation to the King in the name of the whole Government.“

Although Dutch King Willem-Alexander Claus George Ferdinand accepted Rutte’s resignation, the Monarch asked the latter to run a Caretaker Government till mid-November 2023. Rutte assured King Willem-Alexander that the Caretaker Government would focus on important tasks, including support for Ukraine that was invaded by Russia on February 24, 2022. It may be noted that the Coalition Government was in power for just over a year and a half.

Nearly one million people applied for asylum in the European Union (EU) in 2022, and the majority of them were citizens of Syria, Afghanistan, Turkey, Venezuela and Colombia. More than 46,000 asylum-seekers wanted to arrive in the Netherlands in 2022. Amsterdam believes that the figure will exceed 70,000 in 2023. The Dutch Government is in trouble, as all the refugee camps in the country have already become overcrowded. The Rutte Administration made an attempt to keep the influx of war refugees on family reunification visas at 200 per month in order to tackle the crisis.

However, two coalition partners – the Christian Union and the D66 Party – opposed this decision. These two progressive parties in the coalition warned Prime Minister Rutte that they would not support any measures which could make it more difficult for refugees to come to the Netherlands. The PM is of the opinion that the country has already been overburdened by the number of refugees, and it becomes necessary to take action in order to decrease the influx. The coalition partners met thrice in three consecutive days to discuss this issue, but failed to find a solution. After considering the situation, Prime Minister Rutte decided to quit.

In the 2021 election, Root’s People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD; Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie) received the most votes. However, it failed to get an absolute majority in the Parliament. Hence, Prime Minister Rutte had to form a Coalition Government. There is no possibility of forming a new coalition in the current situation. The Opposition parties have already demanded early elections.

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das