The Dutch coalition government collapsed on Thursday after a
junior coalition party clashed with the other two partners over
whether the immigration minister should resign, Dutch and Belgian
media reported Thursday.
In a short statement to parliament Thursday, Prime Minister Jan
Peter Balkenende said all ministers are tendering their
resignation.
Balkenende is expected to submit his resignation to Queen
Beatrix on Friday and ask for dissolution of parliament.
The collapse came one year ahead of the parliamentary election
in next May. The current parliament was elected in May 2003 after
the first Balkenende cabinet fell apart after just 87 days in power
because of infighting within a coalition party.
Under Dutch law, when the parliament is dissolved prematurely,
the cabinet would continue in a caretaker capacity until new
elections were held within three months.
The prime minister's announcement followed the resignation
Thursday of two cabinet ministers and one deputy minister of D66,
the smallest of the three coalition parties.
After a marathon debate Wednesday night in the Dutch lower house
which ran until 5:30 AM Thursday, D66's parliamentary party leader
Lousewies van der Laan said on Thursday morning that her party
would withdraw its support for the government if Immigration
Minister Rita Verdonk does not resign.
D66 sided with opposition parties in support of a motion of no
confidence in Verdonk because of the way Verdonk refused to
acknowledge any blame for her handling of former Dutch lawmaker
Ayaan Hirsi Ali's naturalization issue.
But Verdonk was supported by her own Liberal Party (VVD) and the
Christian Democrats (CDA) of Prime Minister Balkenende. Both
parties see her resignation as unacceptable.
The CDA and the VVD together hold 72 of the 150 seats in the
lower house of the Dutch parliament, four seats short of majority.
D66 holds six seats.
Somali-born Hirsi Ali, a staunch critic of Islam, resigned as a
VVD member of parliament in mid-May when Verdonk threatened to
deprive her of her Dutch passport for lying about her name, age and
refugee status when she applied for Dutch asylum and citizenship in
late 1990's.
But later Verdonk, under pressure from parliament, reversed
course on the issue. She granted Hirsi Ali Dutch citizenship on
Tuesday.
She did so after Hirsi Ali signed a statement, drafted by
Verdonk's staff, apologizing for putting the authorities "on the
wrong track" by using the name of one of her grandfathers rather
than of her father and reporting a wrong birth date when she
applied for naturalization.
Using one's grandfather's name is acceptable practice in Somalia
and therefore technically Hirsi Ali had not lied about her name.
This in turn allows the immigration minister to save face.
Verdonk came under fierce attack for her handling of the Hirsi
Ali affair and opposition party Groen Links tabled the motion of
no-confidence during the parliamentary debate Wednesday night.
Although the motion was defeated 79-64, D66 later decided to
side with the opposition parties in support of the motion.
(Xinhua News Agency June 30, 2006)
