Pulling the Plug

The Dutch Prime Minister, Mark Rutte, has pulled the plug on his Cabinet and the government has fallen.

Rutte and his VVD party want to bring down the number of asylum seekers, so they went for a proposal to prevent families of asylum seekers fleeing a war zone from coming to the Netherlands for at least two years. Absolutely insane and morally contemptible – and two of the other parties (ChristianUnie and D66) in the coalition refused to accept the proposal – quite right.

So it looks like elections in November. Naturally, Wilders’ PVV will want to limit immigration on all fronts, and it looks like the VVD are going down the same route.

There’s also a question over whether the D66 party will be led again by Sigrid Kaag. Two of her (adult) children have said that they have misgivings over her safety in public, and Kaag is taking this seriously.

She’s a very interesting and capable woman; married to a Palestinian and has (had?) a home in Jerusalem as well as the Netherlands. Her Wikipedia entry is more than impressive. I wish more of our politicians had her experience.

Instead, we have politicians like the appalling Wilders and Baudet. Then there’s the newcomer Caroline van der Plas of the populist BBB party. She has a single seat in the Tweede Kamer (herself), but her party recently swept to power in the provincial elections. However, it is becoming increasingly clear that her people are inexperienced and chaos looks likely to ensue. As far as I can see, the BBB has the standpoint that the farmers can do no wrong, and to hell with nature and the climate crisis.

We live in interesting times…