De Mos returns to power in The Hague amid asylum row

Richard de Mos is set to return to power in The Hague on Thursday, almost seven years after he was forced out over a corruption investigation. His new coalition has made scrapping a large asylum centre a flagship pledge – but the courts, the refugee settlement agency COA and the city’s legal quota could stand in the way.

The coalition, led by De Mos’s right-wing populist party Hart voor Den Haag, agreed a deal with the VVD, CDA and Denk this month, and wants to drop plans for a reception centre at a former hospital on Sportlaan, where 440 of a planned 750 places were meant for asylum seekers. It wants to build housing for senior citizens there instead.

Under the national “spreading law”, The Hague must house 2,260 asylum seekers but currently provides around 1,700 places, regional broadcaster Omroep West reported.

In June, a court rejected the city’s attempt to have that target lowered, ruling that ministers need not weigh individual municipalities’ circumstances. Dropping Sportlaan would remove 440 places the council had been counting on to help close the gap.

The COA has warned that the signed Sportlaan contract cannot be cancelled unilaterally. De Mos says the city could buy it out, which Den Haag FM reported could cost tens of millions of euros.

He has proposed reopening a former asylum site in the Binckhorst – a building owned by central government that is being converted into offices, with civil servants due to move in at the end of 2028.

Opposition parties attacked the agreement in a council debate on Wednesday, with PRO Den Haag calling the decision to scrap the reception centre “heartless”.

To fund its plans, the coalition intends to spare up €42 million by shrinking the city bureaucracy, Omroep West reported, alongside smaller cuts to home help and welfare.

De Mos, who was cleared of corruption in 2024, said the coalition was carrying out the mandate voters gave his party in March, when it won 16 of the 45 council seats.