It was inevitable that the discussion about asylum policy would reach a boiling point this week. Asylum has been an open wound in the cooperation between the four government parties since 2017. On Friday evening, that led to the cabinet’s inevitable.
Call it a flaw in the coalition agreement, call it an incantation because they had to put an end to the dragging formation. But when VVD, D66, CDA and ChristenUnie presented their coalition agreement at the end of 2021 after months of negotiations, the passage about asylum policy turned out to be little concrete.
It was agreed that there should be ‘more grip on migration’. But how, that was not worked out in detail. During the formation talks of this cabinet, it was already heard behind the scenes that migration and asylum were the biggest stumbling block in the talks. “If it hits something, it’s on that,” said one person involved at the time. And where the problem was temporarily pushed away during the formation, it came in recent months float to the surface.
Lily and Howick
VVD, D66, CDA and ChristenUnie have fundamentally different ideas about migration and asylum. Simply put, VVD and CDA want stricter asylum rules and D66 and ChristenUnie insist on good reception. They also think differently about labor migration. ChristenUnie and CDA are more opposed to VVD and D66 there. And that has hardly changed in all the years that they have worked together.
This also regularly led to tensions during the previous cabinet, when the four of them also formed a coalition. At the beginning of 2019, tensions ran high the children’s pardon, after a fuss about the Armenian children Lili and Howick. CDA, D66 and ChristenUnie forced the VVD to agree to a broader arrangement. The VVD received in exchange that the State Secretary for Asylum was no longer allowed to make exceptions for ‘distressing cases’. That is now done by a committee.
The rubber band that was supposed to hold the coalition together was stretched, but it could still take a bit. But every rubber band breaks if it has to be stretched too far. Agreements that could be made about stricter asylum policy were either swept aside by the court or not practiced for some other reason.
For example, it was already agreed in the 2017 coalition agreement that the temporary asylum status would be extended from five to three years. It’s still five. And an agreement from August 2022 to legally force municipalities to receive asylum seekers is being delayed in such a way that parliament has still not voted on it.
Constituencies
At the flanks of the coalition has been rumbling for some time. The supporters of the VVD grumble that the party allows itself to be dictated by a left-wing minority. At the same time, supporters of ChristenUnie and D66 warn time and time again at conferences that the Netherlands must not fall below ‘the humane lower limit’. CU members even called on their parliamentary party to break with the cabinet earlier.
The rank and file put pressure on things. Since the end of last year, attempts have been made to work out the agreement from the coalition agreement that there should be more control over migration, but that has not yet led to an agreement. The parliamentary faction of the VVD has indicated for some time that patience is not endless. That turned out this week a crisis and fall of the cabinet worth. In all four parties. In the end, it turned out that the different views could not be reconciled.
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