After hours of negotiations, the government has discontinued the crisis consultations on the influx of asylum seekers. Talks will continue on Friday, according to the participants in the talks. The VVD in particular wants a decision to be made. If not, the cabinet could fall.
After the consultations, D66 leader Sigrid Kaag and Minister Hugo de Jonge (Public Housing and Spatial Planning, CDA), among others, looked back somewhat positively on the talks. They emphasized that there had been “good talks” and that steps had been taken. “We are still talking, but I cannot say that it is easy,” said Carola Schouten (ChristenUnie) about those talks.
The driver behind the consultations is Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who is said to have pushed for a fall of the cabinet. The VVD wants a quota for family members who want to follow war refugees with a temporary residence permit. The ChristenUnie, among others, would have known that they would not agree to that demand.
There are still folds to be ironed out on other aspects of asylum policy, including labor migrants and marriages with Dutch nationals. If the coalition parties fail to reach an agreement on Friday, a fall of Rutte IV seems far from impossible.
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