6 months Ago
The deputy prime minister, Fleur Agema of the PVV, told reporters that she would resign due to the fall of the Cabinet, said it was "a great shame." She thanked her cross-party colleagues but blamed the failure in particular to make progress on asylum policy — an area for which her own party's Minister, Marjolein Faber, was responsible and who also announced her departure. Agema did not indicate whether she would return to the Tweede Kamer, releasing a statement that she is going to take time for herself.
Ministers Express Disappointment and Frustration
Justice State Secretary Ingrid Coenradie says she will not only leave the PVV, but resign from the Cabinet too. Faber, the Asylum and Migration Minister, added she will depart "with her head up high."
NSC Deputy Prime Minister Eddy van Hijum, a Social Affairs Minister, expressed profound disappointment. I'm just really disappointed that we can't carry on." And one of those parties is now walking away, which is very unfortunate," he said. Still, while he stood by the NSC's decision to join the coalition, Pooten said they had started to raise significant issues such as labor migration.
Secretary of State for Economic Affairs Mona Keijzer of the BBB also had strong words for Wilders. The majority in the Cabinet was there to solve problems of the country, but Wilders walked away without good reasons. "I believe he is betraying the Netherlands," she said. "Why? For he had found it difficult? Be a man and call it out when it becomes tempting.
The Return of Political Stability Concerns
VVD Deputy Prime Minister Sophie Hermans had nothing to say after the emergency meeting, but she was present when the Tweede Kamer was resumed. Party leader of the VVD, Dilan Yeşilgöz, criticized Wilders for leaving the negotiating table after they together tried to press for strict asylum policies in Parliament.
Yesilgöz said she was worried that the present collapse is 2012 all over again, when Wilders pulled the plug a month before Prime Minister Mark Rutte's first Cabinet collapsed. His behavior, Wilders is really about avoiding responsibility, not about asylum, she added. "There simply won't be a right-wing Cabinet after this," she said. "That is what makes me so scared."
