The new government coalition in the Netherlands, led by the far-right Freedom Party of Geert Wilders, has announced that it will continue political and military support for Ukraine, NOS reports.
The government plan states that the Netherlands will continue to support Ukraine "politically, militarily, financially and morally against Russian aggression."
At the same time, the coalition will also make it legally binding to spend at least 2% of the Netherlandsʼ GDP on defense in line with NATO agreements.
Reuters writes that the four-party coalition will seek "the strictest asylum regime in history."
"The provision on the rejection of the European asylum and migration policy will be submitted to the European Commission for consideration as soon as possible," the coalition plan states.
According to Wilders, this will make the Netherlands less attractive to asylum seekers and "people from Africa and the Middle East will start to think that they will be better off somewhere else".
With this decision, the Netherlands can join Hungary and Poland, which also challenge the EUʼs migration policy.
The plans are likely to face resistance from Brussels, as EU countries have already agreed to a historic pact on the European asylum and migration system, and exiting it is usually discussed at the negotiating stage.
The coalition government in the Netherlands has said it will also seek to restrict free movement for people from countries joining the EU in the future.
The day before, four Dutch parties, in particular Geert Wildersʼ far-right Freedom Party (PVV), which had been negotiating a new coalition since the end of November, did agree on the formation of a government.
Currently, nothing is known about the candidacy of the future prime minister and coalition leader. Wilders told reporters that the parties had discussed the issue but would continue discussions later.
- On July 8, 2023 , Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte announced his resignation due to differences in the coalition. The entire government resigned with him. The coalition led by Rutte failed to agree on the reform of the right to receive asylum in the country. In recent months, she has been negotiating to reduce the flow of refugees arriving in the kingdom. Rutte led four governments in the Netherlands.
- On November 23 , the far-right Freedom Party (PVV), led by the leader of anti-Islamic populists Geert Wilders, who is called the "Dutch Trump", won the parliamentary elections. Wilders decided to step down after several weeks of difficult coalition negotiations.