You can’t just leave a suicide pact.
That defeats the whole point.
The Netherlands’ right-wing government said on Wednesday it would seek to opt out from the European Union’s migration rules if and when the bloc next renegotiates its core treaties – even though this is unlikely to happen any time soon.
In power since July, the government led by Geert Wilders’ nationalist, anti-Islam PVV party has said it wants to clamp down on unwanted arrivals and aims for the “strictest-ever asylum regime“, with stronger border checks and harsher rules for arriving asylum-seekers.
…
“I just informed @EU_commission that I want a migration opt-out for the Netherlands within Europe,” PVV Asylum and Migration Minister Marjolein Faber said on X.
“We need to be in charge of our own asylum policy again!”, Faber said, in words reminiscent of similar, immigration-focused political slogans in Britain and elsewhere in recent years.
However, the official letter Faber sent to the European Commission is more nuanced and shows the Netherlands is not trying to opt out now from the EU’s newly agreed immigration pact, which was years in the making and entered into force in June, but hopes to do so at a later stage.
Oh, so the whole thing is fake, huh?
By the way, this wilting old horseface is the leader of the “far-right” government:
He’s an “independent” who spent most of his life as a member of a leftist party, and who actually worked to simplify the asylum procedures in 2001, when he was a member of the civil service.
Real hardcore Nazi, this guy.
“This government aims to drastically reduce the volume of migration to the Netherlands,” Faber wrote, adding that, to achieve this aim, it “will call for an opt-out from the European asylum and migration acquis in case of Treaty amendment”.
“I know this will take a long time, but it is a sign that a new wind is blowing,” Wilders said in parliament.
Haha.
Someone is blowing someone, that’s for sure.
No EU treaty change is expected any time soon, however.
Faber made clear that the Netherlands would meanwhile implement the pact, saying it was “essential” for limiting the influx of migrants.
The European Commission promptly responded that it did not expect any changes to asylum rules soon, and welcomed the fact that Faber had pledged to abide by the existing ones.
Under the pact, each EU country will be assigned a share – proportional to economy and population – of the total 30,000 asylum-seekers that the bloc is expected to take in per year. Rights groups say this number, based on the number of irregular border crossings and sea rescues, is too low.
Yeah, that number’s gonna go up really quickly.