At the beginning of this week, CDA leader and Minister of Foreign Affairs Wopke Hoekstra and ChristenUnie leader Gert-Jan Segers were told from their own circle that they will soon have to answer for the new asylum policy. Party leader and Minister of Finance Sigrid Kaag and party leader Jan Paternotte (both D66) can now join them: their party is also organizing a meeting of members. ‘We have received many signals from dissatisfied members’, says department chair Daphnie Ploegstra. ‘It must be clear that the current problems did not just happen to us, but are the result of failed policy.’
D66 members are particularly concerned about the curtailment of family reunification for admitted asylum seekers announced by the cabinet. Ploegstra is concerned that this option is even on the table. ‘Then you as a party go through a lower limit.’ She hopes that the party leadership will explain at the meeting how this deal came about and what the legal feasibility of the proposals is. The Young Democrats are also stirring in a letter. The agreement is ‘outrageous’ and ‘unacceptable’ for the D66 youth.
Earlier, concerned ChristenUnie members called the agreements that postpone family reunification and temporarily stop the admission of recognized refugees as painful and unacceptable. This also applies to the part of the CDA constituency that considers the Christian core values of mercy important. A letter calling on the party to reconsider has 124 signatures.
Headache Files
It is the flip side of a week of political relief. In seven days, the governing parties managed to get rid of the three headache files that haunted them for a summer recess. While exploding energy bills and more expensive groceries took an increasing bite out of Dutch citizens’ wallets, all eyes were on the budget negotiations and the purchasing power package with which the coalition would take the hardest blows for the most vulnerable groups. At the same time, master mediator Johan Remkes became the last hope of the cabinet to break the nitrogen impasse and to take the wind out of the sails of the disruptive farmer protests.
That purchasing power package is there. And it’s hefty. With no less than 15 billion euros, the government will absorb the pain of the historic loss of purchasing power, especially at the bottom of society, partly paid for by higher taxes for the wealthy and companies. It is still too early to conclude that the magic of Johan Remkes has worked, but the last nitrogen consultation led to surprisingly happy faces in all camps. With an asylum deal full of incantations to which the coalition parties can each give their own explanation, the cabinet also hopes to have soothed the unrest and shame about the appalling conditions in Ter Apel.
But the political pain is not over yet. The asylum deal is yet another refugee compromise in a debate in which the positions have been involved years ago and the parties have dug deep. As in the previous cabinets that Mark Rutte led, this dossier appears to be the most severe test for the stability of the coalition. Mathematicians can calculate how the cabinet can best compensate for the historical fall in purchasing power. Which measurement method the cabinet should use to calculate nitrogen emissions is up for discussion. But how a country deals with people who apply for asylum gets to the heart of political parties: what moral values determine a civilization?
In the first Rutte cabinet, the collaboration with the PVV plunged the CDA into a currency crisis from which the party has still not recovered. The PvdA is still struggling with Rutte II’s legacy, in which the party signed, among other things, for the criminalization of illegality and with Diederik Samsom supplied the architect of the Turkey deal. GroenLinks renounced the dream of governing because of the asylum plans for which it had to sign. The ChristenUnie did step in, and immediately all eyes were on Joël Voordewind, the asylum conscience of the faction.
Defense harder
This time it is surprisingly enough a VVD member for whom the asylum compromise is unbearable. MP Daan de Neef is disappointed with how his party has tackled the crisis in the reception. Where he had hoped for compassion, he saw an ‘ice cold’ approach. Because he gives up his seat, he does not practically get the coalition in trouble, but in a political sense he does: it has not exactly become easier for the party leaders of the CDA, D66 and the ChristenUnie to defend the plans in their own circle. now that even a VVD member goes too far.
On Tuesday, the House of Representatives will also be back from summer recess and the opposition will do everything it can to further separate the coalition. Only consolation: the fire comes from both sides. The chasm that runs through the cabinet also runs straight through the House. And although a right-wing majority wants to be stricter on migration, the parties with whom the VVD and the CDA feel related on this issue are considered too extreme to govern with on other issues. For that reason alone, Rutte, Kaag, Hoekstra and Segers are still dependent on each other for the time being.