“No changes to refugee measures,” Wilders warns coalition

Far-right leader Geert Wilders has told reporters he is not prepared to give another millimetre on legislation to curb the number of refugees coming to the Netherlands and that without fast action, his party will be finished with the cabinet.

Immigration minister Marjolein Faber, who represents the PVV, is due to publish her long-awaited draft legislation on reducing the number of asylum seekers and on introducing a second category of refugees this week. But her plans have already been slated by the Council of State and immigration lawyers.

In particular, the constitutional advisory body said it had “serious concerns” about proposals such as abolishing permanent residency for refugees and creating a two-tier asylum system.

The measures are designed to control migration by deterring asylum seekers from coming to the Netherlands and making it easier to send refugees back when the situation in their countries of origin improves. But experts say they will also lead to a wave of new court cases, and place an extra burden on the already overstretched immigration service IND.

“My patience has run out,” Wilders said. “If these proposals generate a lot of resistance, I won’t want to be in the cabinet anymore. I hope this is not the case, but at some point, results will have to be delivered.”

“If people want to make changes, then they will have to move on without us,” he said.

If passed in the lower house, the cabinet’s plans to bring in the “strictest asylum regime ever” are also likely to run into trouble in the senate, where the right-wing government does not have a majority

The three Christian parties which could help the coalition to a majority are extremely critical of the measures, particularly the decision to scrap legislation that ensures all local authorities provide some accommodation for refugees, the paper said.

The four parties agreed on the new plans in October, after ditching the PVV’s demand to declare emergency and so bypass parliament.