The government will fail to meet Geert Wilders’ demand that non-western immigration to the Netherlands be halved by 2015, the Volkskrant reported at the weekend.



The paper says figures from immigration minister Gerd Leers show little change in immigration from outside the developed world.

Wilders made his support for the minority government’s €18bn package of cuts dependent on a ‘substantial’ reduction in immigrants.

In 2012, for example, the minister is expecting 27,000 people will be given a residency permit, the same as in 2016. In addition, 15,000 refugees will come to the country on an annual basis, the minister’s figures show.

New measures

A spokesman for Leers told the paper the effect of new measures to reduce immigration have not yet been included in the calculations.

Leers wants to tighten up the rules on family reunions, with only partners and under-age children being allowed in and not grandparents or other more distant relatives.

There will also be a year’s waiting time before people can join their partners in the Netherlands and ‘import brides’ will only receive independent residence status after they have lived here for five years.

In an interview with Saturday’s Volkskrant, Wilders said an agreement is an agreement. ‘He [Leers] has to meet his targets,’ Wilders said.

Greece

Immigration is only one aspect of the PVV’s support for the coalition which is coming under pressure. Wilders is also totally opposed to any more support for Greece, and a rise in the state pension age.

On Friday, he told reporters 2012 would be the ‘year of truth’ for the coalition alliance. ‘We intend to sit this coalition out, but not at any price. We are not going to accept everything,’ he said, before describing the alliance as a ‘marriage of convenience’.

He also warned the cabinet that future cuts should not hurt Henk and Ingrid, the name Wilders gives to the average man and woman.

Collapse

Labour leader Job Cohen on Saturday challenged Wilders to let the cabinet collapse.

‘Wilders is ignoring the fact that Henk and Ingrid are picking up the bill… if something happens which he doesn’t like, Wilders still says ‘let the government stay’,’ Cohen told the AD.

Meanwhile, VVD stalwart and Alcatel-Lucent CEO Ben Verwaayen says in an interview with Saturday’s NRC Wilders’ attacks on Greece rather than Muslims is a logical step. For Wilders, ‘the Greeks are the new Muslims,’ Verwaayen said.