“Governing is also making mistakes,” Prime Minister Mark Rutte (VVD) said on Friday, just after the cabinet announced emergency measures to curb the crisis in the reception of asylum seekers. Rutte dismissed the fact that he had been warned more than once about the consequences of the fluctuating government policy in recent years – which resulted in shelter places being quickly scaled down in the event of a lower influx. “With every decision you make, there are a lot of people who warn about the risks of such a decision. And yet we have to keep making decisions in politics.”
Read here NRC’s commentary about the asylum crisis in Ter Apel: In Ter Apel, the state almost seems to welcome chaos
A parallel with the nitrogen crisis is obvious. The Rutte IV cabinet is taking hasty measures to rectify wrong policy choices made in previous Rutte cabinets. And, on top of that, there are questions about feasibility: is it possible, is it allowed, what the government wants?
On Friday, the cabinet made an agreement with municipalities that a home will be arranged for 20,000 status holders this year. In addition, there will be a temporary ban on family reunification if status holders do not yet have a place to live. Because international law does not allow a ban, family members will still receive a visa if they have had to wait fifteen months for accommodation.
Concerns about execution
Hubert Bruls, chairman of the 25 security regions, sounded in a TV program on Sunday Buitenhof concerned about the feasibility of the agreements. “Money is not a problem,” he said. But what can be problematic: „the manpower, given the labor market problems, the materials that you have to order, that takes weeks. We are concerned about that. Can we get it done?” This is separate from the legal objections to a temporary stop to family reunification for beneficiaries.
The crisis in asylum reception, the nitrogen crisis and also the redistribution issue that imposes itself in the negotiations about purchasing power: the Rutte IV cabinet is in a short time and under high pressure repairing policy from previous years. Policy that was largely devised or made possible by the same parties, VVD, D66, CDA and ChristenUnie.
Right from the start, the current government had intended to pay more attention to the feasibility of plans. It adopted recommendations from a House of Representatives committee, which had established that citizens are in trouble because the cabinet, the House and implementing organizations do not work well together. But in all the crises that the government is now trying to deal with, feasibility does not seem to win over support and political interests.
Resistance within ChristenUnie
Unrest has arisen in the ChristenUnie this weekend due to the cabinet plans about asylum (reception). In a letter to the party board and the faction in the House of Representatives At least 130 members are demanding that the measures be reversed. Other coalition parties are also struggling. The way in which the VVD and D66 explained the agreements to their supporters differed so much that it seemed to be about very different plans. The D66 election program says a lot about the importance of “humane” reception, the VVD has been promising for years a limitation of the influx of asylum seekers. For ten years now, that party has also supplied the ministers responsible for asylum and migration policy.
Also read: It is better to sleep in the barracks than in overcrowded Ter Apel. ‘This place is truly heaven on earth’
The fact that government parties differ in opinion, and that they like to make this clear to their voters, is inherent in politics. Yet the intensity with which it is now happening is striking. The cabinet has not been working for eight months, important provincial elections are coming up in March – leading to the formation of the Senate – and the idea that Rutte IV can be over in no time is so present in the minds of political leaders, that it threatens to stand in the way of unity.
This is even more visible in the nitrogen dossier, also a crisis that no one was able to overcome. Cabinet after cabinet pushed forward decisions – until there was nothing left but difficult choices, with far-reaching consequences for agriculture.
In the coming week, the cabinet will face another recovery measure: purchasing power. It will fall by an average of 7 percent this year, according to an estimate by the Central Planning Bureau, and will lead to nearly one in ten children growing up in poverty next year. An unprecedented loss that is not so much attributable to policy choices, but which is a test for the unanimity of Rutte IV – and therefore for the governability of the Netherlands.
Also read: How local VVD members put pressure on the party leadership about the reception of asylum seekers
From Ter Apel to Almere p. 4-5More young people than allowed are staying in Ter Apel p. 5‘Family reunification measure is not legally tenable’ p. 6Comment p. 17
A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper of August 29, 2022