That was the vote on Saturday at the second VVD congress this year. In advance it seemed to be an exciting conference because opponents of the distribution law made a lot of noise. With this ‘coercive law’, municipalities can be obliged to give shelter to groups of asylum seekers.
Due to the noise in the media and on social media, there was a large turnout: about 1,500 members gathered on Saturday in the former Van Nelle Factory in Rotterdam, many with proxies for voting on appeals to the parliamentary party about the policy.
All attention was focused on two motions, one for and one against the distribution law. The motion for was passed with 77 percent of the more than 1,800 votes, the motion against was rejected by 76 percent. ‘It helps enormously that we can continue with the law,’ said VVD State Secretary Eric van der Burg, responsible for asylum, afterwards. A potential divisive issue in the party and coalition has been defused.
The sting, the motions on the dispersion law, was quickly drawn on the tightly orchestrated congress. A defeat for the party leadership had to be avoided at all costs.
Inflow and throughflow of asylum seekers
The congress opened with a speech by Mark Rutte. After arguing that Russia should lose the war in Ukraine – ‘A war in Europe is about our values. Otherwise it will not stop because Russia wants to go back to the borders of the Soviet Union’ – he came to the question of asylum. The influx of asylum seekers is ‘two to three times higher than normal’. He pointed to the agreement that was made with Turkey in 2016 about limiting the flow of asylum seekers to Europe.
After that, attention slackened, Rutte acknowledged, also due to the corona crisis. But in recent days, Rutte was at the climate summit in Egypt and the G20, the conference of twenty largest economies in Indonesia. There he spoke to colleagues from Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria about taking back unsuccessful asylum applicants. We are working on the influx, Rutte just wanted to say.
This was still met with mistrust from members, as became clear when discussing the two motions on the distribution law. ‘There is nothing about limiting the influx in the coalition agreement.’ Another denounced D66 and ChristenUnie, who want to do ‘nothing’ about the influx. But members who were embarrassed when Doctors Without Borders had to work at the application center in Ter Apel also moved. “Liberals don’t let children sleep in the grass.”
Henk Kamp from Twente
During the discussion of the motions, strategically placed prominent people were given the floor: ‘Henk Kamp from Twente’, recognized right-wing swordsman when it comes to migration but before the dispersion law, just like ‘Klaas Dijkhoff from Breda’, the former State Secretary for Asylum Affairs, and Malik Azmani, now a member of the European Parliament but previously also co-architect of the Turkey deal.
It worked. An additional advantage of the attention and the discussions in the run-up to the congress is that the debate is alive again in the VVD. The VVD was once known as a ‘debating party’, but in recent years the congress has turned into an applause machine due to prolonged government.
A first impetus for a revival of the debate within the VVD was given during the congress earlier this year in Halfweg. During that first physical conference since the corona crisis, a minimal majority turned against the nitrogen policy. He was shocked by that, Rutte now flattered the congress. “Not a few people call the shots.” This was followed by the election of Eric Wetzels as chairman and not the candidate of the board, Onno Hoes.
It seems that many members had come to Rotterdam to prevent the party from being hijacked by opponents of the hard-won compromise on the dispersion law. ‘I let the previous congress go. That won’t happen to me twice,” said one member over lunch.