Geert Wilders has threatened to pull his far-right PVV party out of the Dutch government unless the cabinet drastically steps up measures to cut asylum within weeks.

Wilders called on the four coalition parties to renegotiate the deal that they agreed when they took office a year ago, with a promise to deliver the “harshest asylum policy ever”.

“Our patience has run out,” Wilders told a press conference in The Hague. “The voters who made the PVV the biggest party have the right to a cabinet that delivers, especially on asylum and immigration.”

Wilders presented a 10-point plan to cut migration by enlisting the army to secure and patrol the borders, close refugee accommodation facilities and send home all Syrian refugees on the grounds that the country is no longer high-risk.

The PVV leader also called for EU quotas on asylum to be suspended temporarily and a total ban on children and other family members joining refugees who are already in the Netherlands.

He said his party, which is the largest in parliament with 37 of the 150 seats, would no longer support the four-way coalition unless significant progress was made before the summer.

Spreading law

That includes abolishing the so-called “spreading law”, which allows the government impose quotas on local authorities if they do not provide enough accommodation for settled refugees, and banning councils from giving refugees priority for social housing.

Wilders’ alternative solution to end the bottleneck in refugee reception centres, which the spreading law was designed to ease, is to force asylum seekers to leave if they are given settled status, without stating where else they should live.

He said his plan was “not a diktat, but it’s not obligation free. I’m not threatening anything, but we will no longer yield to anyone.”

“Because [NSC leader Pieter] Omtzigt and [VVD leader Dilan] Yesilgöz wouldn’t allow me to be prime minister, we got a Schoof cabinet instead of a Wilders cabinet,” Wilders said.

“But if it behaves like a fifth Rutte cabinet and nothing changes, or not enough, we’ll be gone.”

The press conference is an unusual step for a politician who rarely makes public appearances or gives interviews, and reflects Wilders’ frustration at the cabinet’s lack of progress on asylum.

Plans criticised

The PVV-appointed minister for asylum, Marjolein Faber, has drafted three laws to reform the system, all of which have been criticised by the Council of State, the government’s official legal adviser.

Last month the minister had to admit that she would not be able to cut €3.5 billion from the immigration and asylum budget, as agreed in the September budget.

The Council of State said it was not convinced by Faber’s claims that her plans would reduce the number of refugees or make the asylum system more efficient.

A proposal to create a two-tier system of refugees, separating people who faced persecution from those fleeing war zones, risked creating more legal appeals from those who were given the latter status, because it afforded them fewer rights.

The immigration service IND has also urged Faber to delay implementing the system, while the justice ministry’s inspectorate attacked her for not consulting them on her plans.

From next year the Netherlands will also be required to implement the European Asylum and Migration Pact. If Faber’s plans are not in line with EU guidelines, there could be further problems in implementing the new laws and additional legal proceedings, the Council of State warned.

The PVV’s three coalition party colleagues have not yet commented on Wilders’ move, which opposition parties have described as an act of desperation.