Netherlands - Parliamentary elections 2023
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte announced his resignation 07 July 2023 because of a dispute in his ruling coalition about how to rein in migration. The ruling Dutch coalition collapsed after tense talks among the four parties in Rutte’s ruling bloc failed to broker a deal on migration, a senior politician said. Henk Kamp, a senior member of Rutte's People's Party for Freedom and Democracy told Dutch television: “It is a great shame that the government has now fallen.” The failure of months of talks on the thorny issue could now force a general election.
The discussions underscored ideological divisions in the coalition between the partner parties that do not support a strict crackdown on migration — D66 and fellow centrist party ChristenUnie, or Christian Union — and the two that favor tougher measures — Rutte's conservative People's Party for Freedom and Democracy and the Christian Democrats. Proposals reportedly included creating two classes of asylum — a temporary one for people fleeing conflicts and a permanent one for people trying to escape persecution — and reducing the number of family members who are allowed to join asylum-seekers in the Netherlands.
Opposition lawmakers wasted no time in calling for fresh elections. Geert Wilders, leader of the anti-immigration Party for Freedom, tweeted, “Quick elections now.” Jesse Klaver, leader of the Green Left party also called for elections and told Dutch broadcaster NOS: “This country needs a change of direction.” There will likely be an election for the 150-seat lower house of the Dutch parliament later this year amid a polarized and splintered political landscape. Rutte's Cabinet would likely remain in office as a caretaker administration until a new government was formed. During provincial elections earlier in 2023, a populist pro-farmer party put Rutte’s party into second place. The defeat was seen as a possible incentive for Rutte to do his utmost to hold together his coalition until its term ends in 2025.
The Kingdom of the Netherlands is a parliamentary constitutional monarchy consisting of the Netherlands and the semiautonomous island countries of Aruba, Curaçao, and Sint Maarten. The king performs ceremonial functions as head of state and is responsible for appointing the prime minister of the Netherlands who is the head of government; the king also appoints the governors of the islands, who serve as his personal representatives but who do not exert executive authority nor sit on the islands’ Councils of Ministers. The kingdom retains responsibility for foreign policy, defense, and other “kingdom issues.” The Netherlands includes the Caribbean islands of Bonaire, Saba, and Sint Eustatius, which are special municipalities. The six Caribbean entities are collectively known as the Dutch Caribbean. The Netherlands has a bicameral parliament. The country’s 12 provincial councils elect the First Chamber, and the Second Chamber is elected by popular vote. A prime minister and a cabinet representing the governing political parties exercise executive authority. Elections for seats in the Netherlands’ First Chamber in 2019 and for seats in the Second Chamber in 2021 were considered free and fair by observers.
Significant human rights issues included credible reports of: violence or threats of violence against journalists; crimes involving threats of violence against members of national, racial, and ethnic minorities; crimes and threats of violence motivated by antisemitism; and crimes involving violence or threats of violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or intersex persons.
There is no bail system. Detainees can request release asserting there are no grounds to detain them or because there are other more pressing matters. Authorities frequently granted such requests. In all parts of the kingdom, the law provides suspects the right to consult an attorney. Netherlands’ law grants all criminal suspects the right to have their lawyers present at police interrogation.
Independent media in the Netherlands were active and expressed a wide variety of views without restriction. Restrictions on “hate speech” applied to media outlets but were only occasionally enforced. It is a crime to “verbally or in writing or image deliberately offend a group of persons because of their race, their religion or beliefs, their sexual orientation, or their physical, psychological, or mental disability.” The statute in the Netherlands does not consider statements that target a philosophy or religion, as opposed to a group of persons, as criminal hate speech.
In the Netherlands the law provides for the granting of asylum or refugee status and the government has an established system for providing protection to refugees. The government of the Netherlands experienced case overload as the asylum system reached capacity, with over 35,000 first-time claims reported during the year, the highest number since the height of the Syrian refugee crisis in 2015 and nearly one-third more than 2021.
Throughout successive heat waves between June and August, as many as 700 arrivals slept outside the central refugee processing center in Ter Apel without sanitation or protection from the elements. The August 24 death of a three-month-old infant at the facility caused a national outcry. In September, the NGO Dutch Refugee Council initiated summary proceedings against the government and the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers to find a solution to the reception crisis. The NGO had previously announced it would go to court if asylum seekers were not accommodated in accordance with minimum requirements by August 1. According to the organization, the situation has since “fallen further below the humanitarian threshold.”
The government of the Netherlands provided temporary protection to refugees from Ukraine under the EU Temporary Protection Directive. As of July 29, 71,750 Ukrainian refugees were registered in the Netherlands. From 20 July 2022, third-country nationals who are not citizens of Ukraine but hold a Ukrainian residence permit were no longer granted temporary protection in the Netherlands.
Initial processing of recent arrivals took over three months, instead of the two weeks described in government policy documents. Asylum adjudications routinely took 18 months, instead of the six-month target. Government efforts to deal with overcrowding continued to be hampered by a shortage of shelters, especially from municipalities, and setbacks in measures the government announced in August to limit the inflow of asylum seekers. In November parliament passed a measure that will direct municipalities to provide housing, in return for a cash payment to the municipality. The measure requires municipalities to provide housing capacity for status-holders to the government by July 1, 2023. If numbers provided by the municipalities are inadequate, the State Secretary for Migration will determine which municipalities will be directed to find additional space and to what amounts. In December a judge in Haarlem ruled the temporary suspension on family reunification for status-holders was illegal under Dutch and EU law; the ruling was one of several cases in which courts ruled the measure illegal.
Beating all predictions, the PVV won 37 seats out of 150 on 22 November 2023, coming in well ahead of a Labour-Green alliance led by former EU commissioner Frans Timmermans and the conservative People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) of outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte, which slumped to 24 seats. “Can you imagine it? 37 seats!” Wilders exulted to his lawmakers, a day after his far-right PVV Freedom Party won more than double the seats it secured in the last Dutch general election.
Now faced with the difficult task of forming a government, Wilders will have to convince reluctant rivals to join him. But he is no political rookie. The 60-year-old has tried to woo voters with his anti-immigration and anti-EU policies for years, his fiery rhetoric and shock of peroxide blonde hair earning him the nickname “Dutch Donald Trump”. Yet unlike Trump, he has until now spent his life on the political fringe.
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