Dutch government collapses as far-right leader pulls party out of coalition

Coalition leaders call decision by Geert Wilders to withdraw from alliance over immigration policy ‘irresponsible’

Geert Wilders, leader of the far-right party PVV, or Party for Freedom, talks to the media. Picture: AP Photo/Peter Dejong, File

The Dutch far-right leader Geert Wilders has pulled his party out of the country’s four-party ruling coalition in a row over immigration and asylum policy, signalling the imminent end of the Netherlands’ 11-month-old government.

Wilders, whose anti-Islam Freedom party (PVV) finished first in parliamentary elections in late 2023, said on Tuesday he had informed the prime minister, Dick Schoof, that all PVV ministers would leave the government.