Dutch government stands down

The Dutch government quit today 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 when it yesterday 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 today 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 immigrants and asylum seekers, the Netherlands is deeply divided over moves by Verdonk to stem the tide of new arrivals and compel immigrants to assimilate into Dutch society.

Verdonk’s policies have included mandatory citizenship classes for immigrants, 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.

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

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

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.

She now plans to move to Washington, to join the conservative American Enterprise Institute think-tank.

In an interview with CNN from the United States today, Hirsi Ali said she had felt “complex” emotions when told of the government’s demise.

“I just feel that the Cabinet should not have resigned over this issue,” she said.

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

Parliament was to pause for a month-long summer recess starting today, and campaigning for the expected election began immediately. Opposition Labour Party leader Wouter Bos said Balkenende lacked leadership.

“The people are longing to show that they want a different kind of policy, and now they’ll get the chance to show it,” Bos said.

To gain seats, Labour will have to woo voters away from Verdonk’s libertarian VVD party, which has successfully tapped into anti-immigrant sentiment stoked by far-right populists such as Pim Fortuyn, who launched a protest party so successful he almost became prime minister before he was assassinated in 2002.

Under the Dutch system, Queen Beatrix will meet with the leaders of each of the parties in parliament today and tomorrow.

Together with a special royal adviser, they will assess whether there is support for Balkenende to continue with a minority conservative government until after next year’s budget is announced in September or whether to schedule new elections as soon as possible.