Dutch coalition government bickers over immigration as king lays out agenda

As Dutch King Willem-Alexander prepares to lay out his new government's plans for the coming year, members of the coalition led by a hard-right party are bickering over their plans to curtail migration.

The occasion of the king's speech will also be the first major test of a technocratic new government assembled by the right-wing parties that triumphed in last year's elections.

On Monday, a senior member of a party in the coalition said she would oppose the government's plans to rein in immigration if a key political advisory panel rejects them.

The comments Monday by Nicolien van Vroonhoven of the New Social Contract party triggered angry reactions from Geert Wilders' populist anti-immigration Party for Freedom — which topped the polls in national elections last year — and the conservative People's Party for Freedom and Democracy.

The spat underscores the fragility of the coalition, which only came together after months of negotiations.

Prime Minister Dick Schoof was eventually chosen to head a cabinet made up of politicians and civil servants because the leaders did not want the outspoken Wilders as prime minister.

A house divided

While the government seeks consensus on a deal to drastically dial back immigration, the town of Ter Apel in the northern Netherlands opened a sports hall overnight to accommodate asylum seekers who otherwise would have been forced to sleep outdoors because of a shortage of space at a reception centre.

The local mayor accused Margriet Faber, the minister responsible for asylum seekers and migrants, of allowing an accommodation crisis to escalate.

"The minister is shunning her responsibility," Mayor Jaap Velema said in a statement on Monday. "She is responsible for people who come to the Netherlands for asylum. She has had enough time and sufficient opportunity to accommodate people in a decent way."

"She consciously does not do this."

The Dutch government is planning to declare an "asylum crisis" to pave the way for tougher measures, including reining in visas for family members of people granted asylum and making it easier and quicker to deport migrants who are not eligible for asylum.

The government also plans to apply for an opt-out from EU migration rules and step up border checks, taking a similar approach to neighbouring Germany. It remains unclear how many of the Dutch government's plans can be enforced.