According to him, there is no deadline, because ‘the process is still ongoing internally’. At the same time, Rutte made no secret of the differences between the cabinet parties. According to VVD and CDA, the influx is too high and the arrival of asylum seekers in the Netherlands should be discouraged, but D66 and ChristenUnie view this very differently. There is no solution for the short term, Rutte acknowledges. “Everyone sees that it is getting stuck in education, the housing shortage, the support for shelter. That can be determined objectively. But there’s no point beating each other’s brains about whether you think the influx is too high. We must prevent people from lying in the grass in Ter Apel again.” Rutte cannot rule out the possibility that this will happen. “Unfortunately, we cannot guarantee that.”
Rutte promised his own party that he would do something ‘personally’ about ‘the excessive influx’. Next week there is a congress of the VVD, although Rutte will therefore be left empty-handed. “But I have a message for Congress, only I am here now as prime minister, so I will not share it here.”
Today the cabinet did agree on the so-called ‘compulsory law’, or distribution law. This makes it possible to oblige municipalities to receive asylum seekers. The law is sensitive, because the VVD in particular did not feel like it. According to Rutte, the law will eventually ‘really contribute’ to spreading the reception of asylum seekers across the country.
Watch all our videos about politics here:
#Asylum #discussion #cabinet #continue #number #weeks
/s3/static.nrc.nl/images/gn4/stripped/data101451656-62ab8d.jpg)
