The Dutch coalition government has collapsed after far-right leader Geert Wilders withdrew his PVV party in a dispute over migration policy.
Wilders said his coalition partners were not willing to embrace his ideas of halting asylum migration, for which he had demanded immediate support last week.
"No signature under our asylum plans. The PVV leaves the coalition," Wilders said in a post on X.
Wilders said he had informed Prime Minister Dick Schoof that all ministers from his PVV party would quit the government.
Schoof has not yet reacted to the resignation.
Why did Wilders withdraw his party?
Wilders had last week demanded immediate support for his proposals to completely halt asylum migration, send Syrian refugees back to their home country and to close asylum shelters.
Coalition partners did not embrace his idea, and had said it was up to the migration minister from Wilders' own party to work on specific proposals.
How have coalition leaders reacted?
Wilders' coalition partners responded with disbelief and anger.
"This is making us look like a fool," the leader of the conservative VVD party Dilan Yesilgöz said.
Dilan Yesilgöz, the leader of coalition VVD party, said Wilder's actions had made the coalition look foolish. Source: SIPA USA / ANP
"This is incredible," leader of the centrist NSC party Nicolien van Vroonhoven said. "It is irresponsible to take down the government at this point."
What happens now?
Wilders' surprise move ends an already fragile coalition, which has struggled to reach any consensus since its installation last July.
It will likely bring new elections in a few months, adding to political uncertainty.
It will likely also delay a decision on a possibly historic increase in defence spending to meet new NATO targets.
And it will leave the Netherlands with only a caretaker government when it receives NATO country leaders for a summit to decide on these targets in The Hague later this month.
With PVV out, the other parties have the theoretical option to try and proceed as a minority government. They are not expected to, and have yet to confirm it.
Opposition leader Frans Timmermans said new elections were the only option.
"I see no other way to form a stable government," the leader of the Labour/Green coalition said.
Geert Wilders said he had informed Prime Minister Dick Schoof that all ministers from his party would quit government. Source: SIPA USA / ANP
Polls now put his party at around 20 per cent of the votes, roughly at par with the Labour/Green combination that is currently the second-largest in parliament.
Wilders, who was convicted for discrimination against Moroccans in 2016, was not part of the government himself as its leader or a minister.
He only managed to strike a coalition deal with three other conservative parties last year after he failed to garner coalition support to become prime minister.
Instead, the cabinet was led by the independent and unelected Schoof, a career bureaucrat who had led the Dutch intelligence agency AIVD.
