Dutch politics -- Mrs. Verdonk does it again
Amazingly, Mrs. Verdonk (Immigration Minister of the Netherlands) managed to provoke yet another crisis in Dutch politics. Her questionable behavior in the case Ayaan Hirshi Ali brought down the ruling Cabinet a few months ago, and forced new elections in November. Today she ignored a vote of no confidence by parliament, a first in the constitutional history of the Netherlands.
Her party did -deservedly- rather bad at the recent elections and she is now a 'lame duck' minister, taking care of business while a new government is being formed. This can take a few months, as in the Netherlands governments are created by forming a coalition of two or three political parties.
The newly elected parliament asked Mrs. Verdonk's to postpone the extradition of a group of 26,000 asylum seekers to allow the new cabinet to decide on them. She refused, even after two formal requests by parliament and as a result the parliament issued a vote of no-confidence. In normal situations that would be sufficient to force a minister to resign.
However, her political party the VVD announced that it would retract support for the entire government if she was forced to leave. This would have left a strange void, as the cabinet strictly speaking already had resigned. As NRC, a Dutch newspaper put it: "it's frightening that the situation is more tough than the politicians are who dealing with it".
Mr. Balkenende, who has been leading a series of disastrous cabinets, was apparently in favor of Mrs. Verdonk resigning but at the end she stayed on as member of the Cabinet. She did have to give up her position as Immigration Minister, and the deportations will be temporarily halted.
The unrest in the VVD party, the Dutch free-market conservatives, must be considerable. It's interesting that the support Mrs. Verdonk received today from the party's number 1 came after she tried to unsettle him from his position a few weeks ago when she had received more votes than he did in the general elections.
All in all, this affair leaves a bitter taste for many people, not in the least of course by the asylum seekers, some of which have been in legal procedures for over 10 years. It will not make it any easier to form a new government either.
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Dutch politics -- Mrs. Verdonk does it again
She's not a democratic person. I think new elections will be unavoidable.
It's strange to vote for the 2e Kamer and for ministers. This should be separated elections. The ministers should be chosen in another election than the members of parliament.
In that we we would get a bigger separation between parliament and ministers. That would be better for democracy.
Dutch politics -- Mrs. Verdonk does it again
Yes, you're right. But I'm worrying about all these people who voted for her. It probably means that she has got huge support of people in the country. That's really frightening...
Dutch politics -- Mrs. Verdonk does it again
That is excactly what I wanted to say. She is such a bad politician, and so many people still voted for her. What does that say about the Dutchmen???
Dutch politics -- Mrs. Verdonk does it again
A very funny Fokke & Sukke cartoon:
Dutch politics -- Mrs. Verdonk does it again
It was in fact the PvdA causing all this.
It is an unwritten rule to not put anything delicate on the agenda while the government is in a demissionary (? does that word exist?) state.
With this the PvdA violated that rule.
Also, Verdonk just does what is agreed on when they started this government.
And besides that mr. Cohen (of the PvdA) came up with the ideas for the current policy on asylum seekers.
You cannot expect the government to radically change their direction just after elections.
I'm not a fan of Verdonk, but in my opinion she deserves more credit than she's getting.
Dutch politics -- Mrs. Verdonk does it again
It is understandable that Mrs. Verdonk didn't want to radically change the government's direction after the elections.
However, what the parliament (including PvdA) asked for was a time-out: stop the deportations for a few months until the new government has been assembled, which can then decide on the new policy. This would have been simple for the minister to approve: she wouldn't have to change her policy, just pause it.
I suppose, after all that happened, I don't have a lot patience with Mrs. Verdonk anymore ;)
Dutch politics -- Mrs. Verdonk does it again
I also don't understand why she refused to stop moving people out of the country (I want to avoid deportation, because that isn't what it is).
The arguments against it weren't very strong.
However, it was the PvdA starting with the debate after all, so in fact they are to blame for the whole situation.
Dutch politics -- Mrs. Verdonk does it again
Now I'm thinking about it, it is logical for her to refuse because moving people out IS part of the governments policy.
So in fact the left wing is asking to stop doing what they agreed on.
Hmm, it is difficult to write what I want to say in a few lines in english.....