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Dutch prime minister Dick Schoof has resigned after far-right leader Geert Wilders walked out of his coalition government, setting the stage for snap elections.
Following an emergency cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Schoof went to the royal palace to offer his resignation to King Willem-Alexander, but said he would remain in a caretaker role until a fresh vote.
Schoof condemned Wilders’ action as “irresponsible and unnecessary” but said he would “continue undaunted” as long as necessary.
Wilders pulled his Freedom party out of government after just 11 months, saying the other three parties in the coalition had refused to back his calls for tough action to cut immigration.
The veteran anti-Islamist won the most votes in the election in November 2023, sending shockwaves through Europe. His party subsequently joined the government for the first time. Wilders had previously supported Mark Rutte’s first cabinet from outside government in 2010, but pulled out of that arrangement in 2012 in a dispute over budget cuts.
Wilders, 61, told reporters on Wednesday that he intended to become prime minister in upcoming elections, but polls predict the Freedom party will get about 30 seats, down from 37 in 2023, when it came first.
The party’s five ministers and four state secretaries have also resigned.
Sarah de Lange, professor of political pluralism at the University of Amsterdam, said she expected an election in September.
She said the Freedom party’s support was dropping in polls, putting it level with the Labour/Green alliance and rightwing liberal VVD, with about 20 per cent support.
“He wanted to end the coalition on his terms, stressing that he stood his ground on immigration,” she said. “By doing this he is hoping that immigration will be the core theme for the next election.”
Wilders last week proposed a 10-point plan to cut migration, which he demanded that the other leaders in the coalition sign.
It included using the army to patrol the border, closing refugee accommodation centres and sending home many Syrian refugees, arguing that the country was now safe to return to after the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime last year.
In crisis talks on Monday and Tuesday morning, the other three party leaders refused to agree to plans they said were potentially illegal.
Dilan Yesilgöz, leader of the second-biggest coalition party, the liberal VVD, attacked Wilders for “just doing what he wants”. “We had a rightwing majority and he lets it all go for his ego,” she told reporters.
His closest ally, Caroline van der Plas of the Farmer-Citizen Movement, said Wilders was “irresponsible”.
“He has all the trumps in his hand and yet he just pulls the plug,” she told reporters in The Hague.
Wilders’ plan also called for a ban on family members joining refugees already in the Netherlands.
Frans Timmermans, the former European Commission vice-president who leads the main opposition Labour/Green alliance, said he welcomed the news and called for new leadership for the country.
“We have had enough of this standstill and that is not helping our country. There is war in Europe and people are very worried about their future,” Timmermans said. His alliance is tied with the Freedom party at the top of opinion polls.
Wilders received death threats when he made a film in 2008 that linked the teachings of the Koran with the 9/11 terrorist attacks and other atrocities. Since then he has lived in a safe house, has a police guard and frequently posts the threats against him online.
Wilders recently posted on X a poll that found that a majority of Dutch people wanted to ban Islam from the country.
Far-right movements have performed strongly in Germany, Poland, Austria, Portugal and Romania in elections this year. Ultranationalist Karol Nawrocki was elected president of Poland on Sunday.
