Cnn
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The far-right party for freedom (PVV) leaves the government of the Netherlands on its policy for asylum seekers, its leader Geert Wilders, reversing the governess coalition on Tuesday.
“I registered in the strictest asylum policy, not the fall in the Netherlands,” Wilders told journalists on Tuesday morning. “And our responsibility for this firm therefore ends here.”
Wilders’ decision to withdraw the support of the most right in Dutch history has plunged the country’s policy into chaos. He left the government, led by Prime Minister Dick Schoof, with only 51 out of 150 seats in Parliament.
Prime Minister Dick Schoof described the decision as “useless and irresponsible”. But speaking with journalists after a meeting of the cabinet on Tuesday afternoon, he offered few details on his conversations with Wilders.
He said that without the support of the PVV, it was impossible for the government to continue and that he would remain in power in the direction of a goalkeeper government until a new coalition takes over.
Opposition leaders called for immediate elections.
The polls suggest that, if elections will take place today, the PVV would lose seats but remain the largest party, just ahead of the Popular Party of the Center-Drut for Liberty and Democracy.
But it is not a guarantee that he could enter a new government. Dutch policy presents a constellation of parties, none of which has ever been able to order a majority of Dutch votes. The polls suggest that the central right and center-left parties would gain new elections.
Wilders PVV was the clear winner of a November 2023 elections. But a coalition agreement struck after months of bargaining dictated thatWhile his party would join the government, he would remain on the sidelines, in Parliament.
Wilders has a long history of anti-Islam and anti-immigrant rhetoric, it was sentenced discrimination after insulting Moroccan immigrants during a 2014 campaign rally, and his party call “No Islamic schools, corans and mosques.”
Last week, Wilders held a rare and official press conference to present an ultimatum to the government to tighten the country’s asylum policy – despite the fact that the Minister of Asylum and Migration is a member of his own party.
“PVV has promised voters the strictest asylum policy of all time, aimed at making it the strictest in all of Europe,” said Wilders on Tuesday. “We proposed a plan to close the borders to asylum seekers, to stop them, to send them back. To stop building asylum seeker centers, to close them. ”
But the coalition, he said, refused its proposals.
“I could do nothing but say that we are now taking off our support for this cabinet.”
