Dutch government resigns after immigration row

THE Dutch government resigned yesterday amid infighting over a failed attempt to strip a prominent Somali-born critic of Islam of her Dutch citizenship — setting the stage for elections likely to be dominated by immigration issues.

Minor coalition party D-66 torpedoed the government on Thursday when it refused to work with hardline Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk and accused her of damaging the country’s reputation with her bungled attempt to revoke Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s passport.

Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende visited Queen Beatrix yesterday morning to tell her of his government’s decision to resign. No date for elections was immediately announced.

Once considered one of Europe’s most welcoming nations for asylum seekers, the Netherlands is deeply divided over moves by Ms Verdonk to stem the tide of new arrivals and compel immigrants to assimilate into Dutch society.

Her policies have included jailing asylum seekers while their cases are handled and deporting 26,000 illegal immigrants.

“The country is rather divided, with part of the people supporting Rita Verdonk... and the centre and left, voters for Labour dislike or even hate her,” said Philip van Praag, a professor of political science at the University of Amsterdam.

He said immigration would continue to be the major issue in Dutch politics in elections that will now likely be scheduled before the end of the year, instead of in May 2007 as originally planned.

Ms Verdonk triggered the scandal that eventually brought down Mr Balkenende’s administration last month when she tried to revoke Ms Hirsi Ali’s passport for lying on her asylum application nearly 15 years ago.

But Ms Verdonk this week performed an embarrassing U-turn, using a loophole to let Ms Hirsi Ali stay.

Ms Hirsi Ali has lived under death threats since the murder of the filmmaker Theo van Gogh by a Muslim extremist, in 2004. She wrote the screenplay for his film Submission, which criticised the treatment of women under Islam.

Despite the political fallout, polls in the Netherlands showed a majority thought Ms Verdonk was right to apply the same rules to Ms Hirsi Ali as other asylum seekers.

To gain seats, Labour will have to woo voters away from Ms Verdonk’s libertarian VVD party, which has successfully tapped into anti-immigrant sentiment.