The VVD is provisionally claiming the asylum portfolio now that PVV leader Geert Wilders has withdrawn his ministers from the cabinet. According to the substitution arrangement, Justice Minister David van Weel (VVD) will be responsible for the portfolio.
That was previously agreed in the Council of Ministers, and the VVD is sticking to that for the time being. Talks on this matter yielded nothing on Friday evening. BBB and NSC assumed after the meeting that negotiations would resume next week, but according to the VVD, it has been determined that Van Weel is the acting asylum minister “until further notice.”
“No more arguing and hassle,” says party leader Dilan Yesilgöz. “We are falling back on the agreed substitution arrangement.” Yesilgöz emphasizes that the three parties have tried to make a new distribution, but that this has not succeeded. “As far as the VVD is concerned, we have lost enough time.”
NSC states that “the last word has not yet been said about this.” The BBB writes on X that party leader Caroline van der Plas and outgoing Minister of Housing and Spatial Planning Mona Keijzer want to continue talking on Tuesday.
That party wanted Keijzer to get Asylum in her portfolio, given the overlap with her current work: Keijzer is already involved in, among other things, housing refugees, Van der Plas reasoned after the consultation. NSC leader Nicolien van Vroonhoven and NSC Deputy Prime Minister Eddy van Hijum, who stood next to Van der Plas, did not contradict her.
After the coalition breakup, PVV leader Wilders withdrew his ministers and state secretaries from the cabinet, including Minister Marjolein Faber of Asylum and Migration. The three remaining parties have since been eyeing that vacant department. The party that succeeds in getting Faber’s asylum laws through the House of Representatives can boast about it during the election campaign. You can read more about this in the article below.