Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof was forced to resign Tuesday after Geert Wilders pulled out from the ruling coalition government. This sudden political upheaval has plunged the Netherlands back into political uncertainty. Schoof is rising to the occasion by heading a caretaker government until new elections can be arranged. The Prime Minister is expected to tender his cabinet’s resignation to King Willem-Alexander later today.
Despite these early successes, the coalition government has been hampered by monumental domestic and international crises. As it continues to chart its course through this stormy and uncertain time, it will make the move to a caretaker role. No firm date for new elections has been selected, leaving the country in an uncertain political stasis.
Schoof’s resignation follows a very public and heated spat between him and Wilders over the recent direction on asylum and immigration policy. Wilders pursued a much stricter approach to these topics. He did not hide his disappointment about the course the outgoing government was taking. He stated, “I signed up for the toughest asylum policy, not the downfall of the Netherlands.”
Schoof delivered a late-stage push to coalition party leaders. He intended to rescue the government from such events. Those efforts died. Faced with that impending crisis, he convened an emergency cabinet meeting first thing that afternoon to address the emerging crisis.
At the same time, the Netherlands is preparing for a meeting of NATO heads-of-state in The Hague in only three weeks. Schoof’s caretaker government will be in place during this critical event, raising concerns about the impact of political instability on the country’s readiness to engage in important discussions regarding defense spending and security cooperation.
Schoof’s administration has promised increases in defense spending to at least 2.5% of GDP by 2027 (currently 2.33%). They commit to increasing it beyond that, to 3% in the next parliamentary term. Wilders’s departure could make this commitment more difficult and postpone decisions to increase defense spending sharply to meet NATO’s 2% target.
When it came to the priorities and challenges his administration is working to fix, Schoof didn’t shy away from the seriousness of the issue. “As far as I’m concerned, this shouldn’t have happened,” he remarked in a statement reflecting on the coalition’s struggles.
The political scene in the Netherlands is confounded by continuing international pressures, especially from the war in Ukraine. Dilan Yeşilgöz, another leading figure in Schoof’s administration, drew focus to these foreign obstacles when she spoke at an earlier roundtable with coalition members. The prime minister, who called on us this very morning, talked about the incredible international crises looming before us. We face an unprecedented war on our own continent. An economic crisis is approaching faster than we can even realize,” she commented.
As the country continues to struggle with its caretaker leadership, the nation prepares for new elections. As national security discussions heat up, it remains to be seen how these developments will affect the Netherlands’ political future and its fate within NATO.