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June 29, 2006

Holland: Dispute Over Islam Critic Causes Government To Fall

We reported on May 16 and on June 27 on the parliamentary rows concerning the citizenship of the Member of Parliament, Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

In brief, a documentary aired on Dutch TV on Thursday May 11 stated that Hirsi Ali had lied about her age and her name when she applied for asylum in 1992, even though she had been open about this since since 2003, when she became an MP for the VVD or Liberal Party.

A naturalised Dutch citizen since 1997, Hirsi Ali (real name Ayaan Hirsi Magan) was challenged after the May 11 documentary by Rita Verdonk, the minister for Immigration and Integration, who was at that time running for the position of leader of the VVD party.

Verdonk, nicknamed "Iron Rita" claimed that she did not know that Hirsi Ali had lied, and on May 15, she said that Hirsi Ali would lose her Dutch citizenship, unless she could provide a good reason within six weeks. This set off a chain reaction, with Hirsi ALi resigning as an MP on May 16, and ministers and MPs fiercely denouncing Verdonk, who ended up losing her leadership election, even though she had been previously tipped to win.

Verdonk (pictured, top), as we reported on Tuesday attempted to redeem herself by producing a letter, signed by Hirsi Ali, in which it was stated that it was usual in Somalia to adopt the name of a grandfather (Ali was the name of Hirsi Ali's grandfather). In the letter, Hirsi Ali states that she exonerated Verdonk, and blamed herself for the confusion.

A meeting of cabinet ministers had met at the apartment of the Prime Minister, Jan Peter Balkenende on Monday (June 26), at which it was agreed that Hirsi Ali should retain her citizenship, and those attending later said there was "good hope" for such an outcome.

However, late on Thursday night, Ayaan Hirsi Ali (pictured above left) was interviewed by phone in the United States, where she will be working for a right wing think-tank. She said that she had signed the letter exonerating Verdonk under pressure, because it was taking a long time to gain her US work visa with uncertainty over her citizenship status.

The letter had been drawn up by officials on the instructions of Rita Verdonk, and was not something that had willingly been elicited from Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

This, then, is the background. Three stories appeared in Expatica today, relating the subsequent developments.

ACT ONE

In the first article, yesterday (Wednesday June 28), D66, the junior partner in the coalition government sided with the left-wing opposition on a motion calling for the resignation of Verdonk.

This morning, Lousewies van der Laan (pictured, right), the outgoing leader of D66, said that her party would cause the government to fall if Verdonk did not resign over her "performance" relating to Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

The major coalition partners, the VVD, to which Verdonk and formerly Hirsi Ali belonged, and the Christian Democrats (CDA), to which Prime Minister Balkenende belonged, supported Verdonk.

The motion for Verdonk to resign had been tabled on Wednesday evening by the GroenLinks (GL) party, a green/left wing group. The debate continued through the night until 5.30 am this morning. The motion was defeated by 79 votes to 64.

But the lack of support by D66 caused cracks in a fragile coalition. In 2002, Jan Peter Balkenende had presided over another fragile coalition government that collapsed after a mere 87 days.

ACT TWO

The second article relates that Jan Peter Balkenende announced to parliament at 4 pm today that the motion of no-confidence in Rita Verdonk, which had been defeated by a narrow margin, would not have any consequences for the government.

There are two members of D66 in the Dutch Cabinet. These are: the Deputy Prime Minister, Laurens Jan Brinkhorst, and Alexander Pechtold, who is the newly elected leader of the D66 MPs, due to replace Lousewies van der Laan. Both were behind the acting D66 leader, Lousewies van der Laan, who earlier today told parliament that her party did not want to bring down the government deliberately, but could not tolerate the continued role of Immigration and Integration Minister being in the hands of Rita Verdonk.

After Balkenende made his statement that all his ministers were behind Verdonk's continuation, Lousewies van der Laan asked for an adjournment of Parliament while she prepared a statement.

ACT THREE

The third article in Expatica relates that following the adjournment, the two Cabinet Ministers, Brinkhorst and Pechtold, as well as a third junior minister, resigned from the government after a bizarre series of developments.

Lousewies van der Laan earlier announced that D66 was withdrawing support for the government, and told parliament that Balkenende should go to Queen Beatrix to ask for the dissolution of parliament.

Then CDA and VDD members questioned van der Laan why her ministers had not resigned. The parliamentary leader of the Christian Deomocrats, Mxime Verhagen, suggested that D66 should firstly table a motion of no confidence in their ministers.

The VVD and CDA suggested that the government could continue with or without the participation of the D66 party. The ministers resigned, the VVD and CDA still made noises about consulting with the Queen to form a minority government, to introduce the 2007 government, but by this time, it was all over.

Without the two Cabinet minister and a junior minister, the majority needed to remain in power had evaporated.

At 8.30 pm GMT, Jan Peter Balkenende announced the fall of the government.

THE END

The story is also covered by The Telegraph and the Times. Jan Peter Balkenende will be expected to meet with Queen Beatrix tomorrow to officially announce the demise of the Netherlands government and to hand in his resignation.

Rita Verdonk, shown having her invitation to a handshake being refused by an imam at a mosque she visited last year, was a tough Minister, and had formerly been a prison officer. Her rushed decision to announce that Hirsi Ali would not be able to continue her citizenship lost her party one of its most popular MPs, and was said to have been a political ploy to show that she was a tough politician. She is a mother of two.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at June 29, 2006 10:29 PM

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