Prime minister to answer MPs on refugees, justice ministry budget

PERSCONFERENTIE MINISTERRAADPrime minister Mark Rutte will use the second day of debate on the government’s 2016 spending plans on Thursday to answer MPs’ questions.

In particular, Rutte will deal with calls from Geert Wilders, leader of the anti-immigration PVV, to close the Dutch borders to asylum seekers.

During Wednesday’s 14-hour debate, Wilders read out a list of local councils where asylum seekers are already being settled, arguing that the Netherlands is already full.

At the end of the list, D66 leader Alexander Pechtold jumped to his feet and said all these councils should be thanked, to MPs’ applause. There is only rarely applause in parliament, broadcaster Nos said.

Nos political correspondent Xander van der Wulp said the prime minister is likely to criticise Wilders for shouting from the sidelines but failing to come up with a workable solution.

The justice ministry’s 2016 budget is also likely to come up for discussion in Thursday’s debate. There is so much criticism of the cuts among opposition MPs that the plans are unlikely to be passed in the upper house of parliament, where the ruling coalition does not have majority support.

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