What you need to know about the collapse of the Dutch government

Coalition parties failed to reach agreement on the country's migration policy. What were they fighting over and what happens next?

A political crisis erupted in the Netherlands on Friday evening, with the Prime Minister offering the resignation of his government to the king, which means that there will be new elections in the fall. Here's what you need to know.

Why did the Dutch government collapse?

Unable to convince the most centrist members of its four-party government coalition to back policies restrictions on migration, the conservative Prime Minister of the Netherlands, Mark Rutte, presented his resignation to King Willem-Alexander in writing on Friday evening and spoke to the King in person on Saturday in The Hague.

The collapse highlights the power of immigration as the arbiter of European politics, and how to prevent far-right parties from taking advantage of it is a growing problem for mainstream politicians.

Mr. Rutte's four-party coalition included his own party, the center-right People's Party for Freedom and Democracy, as well as the centrist pro-European D66 and two centrist Christian parties: CDA and Christian Union.

As his government felt pressured on the migration issue by right-wing parties, Mr Rutte had been talking to his coalition partners for months about measures to better control the number of refugees entering the country. On Friday evening, the parties decided they could not find a compromise and opted to dissolve the coalition, plunging the country into political uncertainty.

"This It's no secret that the coalition partners have very different views on migration policy," Rutte said on Friday. "And today, unfortunately, we have to draw the conclusion that these differences are irreconcilable."

What were the proposed policies that led to the breakup?

The government had debated conditions for family reunification for refugees and also whether to create two asylum classes: one temporary for people fleeing conflict and one permanent for people fleeing persecution.

The aim of both proposals was to reduce the number of refugees, as right-wing parties outside the coalition saw political gains in appealing to Dutch voters' growing concerns about immigration.

While the other parties of the coalition were ready to accept the two-tier asylum system, they would not agree to support Mr Rutte's proposal for a two-year waiting period before refugees already living in the Netherlands could be joined by their children.

Last year more than 21,000 people from outside the European Union applied for asylum in the Netherlands, according to the Dutch government. More than 400,000 people immigrated to the Netherlands in 2022, the office said, an increase from the previous year.

The large number of arrivals strained the housing capacity of the Netherlands, which was already suffering from a shortage for the country's more than 17 million inhabitants.

ImageThe Prime Minister arriving to speak with the King on Saturday. After the resignation of Mr. Rutte, the Netherlands will retain...