Another EU Member State's Globalist Government Collapses
Election could see fed-up Dutch voters throw out the old guard and elect the BBB Party
My friends and I on Boggart Blog have recently been happy to report the victory of Georgia Meloni's Brothers of Italy in that country's election, the defeat of Sweden's ultra - left, anti - Swedish, Social Democrat led coalition by a centerist group which includes the Eurosceptic Sweden Democrats, the resurgence of Germany's AfD and France's Rassemblement National. It started to look as if the tide was turning against Globalism and EU Federalism.
But somehow, despite strong rumblings of discontent from the people, The Netherlands seemed immune to this trend. In spite of threats of a political upheaval, Prime Minister Mark Rutte somehow managed to stay in power election after election. Rutte, sometimes referred to as Teflon Mark, though eel slime would be a better description because while he has successfully smeared all opponents who threatened to upset the status quo, he himself has managed to wriggle and slither out of every scandal that has tainted member of his coalition. But the situation may be about to change.
We are hearing and reading on the news feeds that the Dutch government fell on tonight (Friday July 7,) night amid deep divisions over plans to restrict the right of asylum seekers to bring their families to the Netherlands. Like many EU nations Netherlands is overrun with fake asylum seekers and refugees and the policy imposed by the 'woke' bureaucratic dictatorship in Brussels which forces member states to admit all comers.
Prime Minister Rutte, sensing a threat to his hold on power following the resounding success of the upstart BBB party earlier this year had called for a crackdown on family reunification but that had infuriated two of the four parties in the ruling coalition of conservatives and liberals.
Late night talks to salvage the government failed to resolve the impasse on Wednesday and Thursday after the plan was rejected by important members of Mr Rutte’s cabinet.
On Friday evening Rutte's supporters threw in the towel and admitted that the row had irrevocably divided the government and the four parties of the ruling coalition could no longer work together. This means the Netherlands will have to hold a general election, probably sometime s in the Autumn.
Apart from the asylum seekers issue there are further deep divisions between the liberal D66 and centrist Christian Union, which oppose the crackdown and Mr Rutte’s VVD and the Christian Democrats.
Rutte exacerbated the split by allegedly “pissing off” his deputy Sigrid Kaag, the D66 leader, by trying to push through the plan in the face of liberal opposition in the coalition.
Asylum applications in the Netherlands jumped by a third last year to over 46,000, and are expected to increase to more than 70,000 this year - topping the previous high of 2015 in a densely populated country of about 18 million people. Few of these are genuine asylum seekers, fleeing political or religious persecution in their homeland, nor do they qualify as refugees as they are not from places affected by war, natural disaster or humanitarian crisis.
Mr Rutte wants to reduce the number of refugees arriving in Netherlands in order to head off the challenge from nationalist parties such as the populist Farmers-Citizen Movement (BBB).
Though Rutte's VVD is the largest party in the Netherlands but recent polls predicted that if an election was called, it would tie with the Dutch farmers party. The BBB won a landslide victory in regional elections to become the largest party in all 12 Dutch provinces in a vote dominated by tractor protests against Mr Rutte’s plans for compulsory farm buyouts to meet EU climate targets. So strong are feelings among the left wing members of the coalition that the threat is unlikely to be enough to hold them together for another term in government.
Caroline van der Plas, the BBB leader, has called for a cap of between 50 to 100 asylum seekers per city council or regional authority, as she looked to consolidate her victory in a vote that became a referendum on almost 13 years in office of Teflon Mark Rutte. Ironically though his asylum seekers policy is undeniably populist it seems likely to backfire on him to the advantage of populist parties.
Should Rutte be defeated and his government replaced by a Eurosceptic coalition it will be a massive setback for the European Commission, the de facto government of the EU as The Netherlands has always been one of the strongest supporters of 'Ever Closer Integration', a euphemism for the creation of a federal European Superstate.
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