The Dutch Cabinet collapsed Tuesday after far-right PVV leader Geert Wilders abruptly withdrew from the four-party coalition, drawing a storm of reactions from political leaders — some furious, others relieved.
Caroline van der Plas, leader of the BBB, sharply criticized Wilders’s decision — and the way he announced it. “There’s no room to even talk about it. And then he puts it on Twitter,” she said. “You don’t govern a country via Twitter.”
Van der Plas accused Wilders of prioritizing his own agenda over national interests. “He’s not putting the Netherlands first, he’s putting Geert Wilders first. He’s breaking a promise to his voters. He said he would fight for stricter immigration policy, and now none of that is going to happen.”
She said the BBB believed Wilders’s demands could have been met by his own asylum minister, Marjolein Faber. “But he doesn’t care. We can say whatever we want, but he had already made his decision.” She added that the BBB would hold an emergency meeting with its ministers Tuesday morning.
CDA leader Henri Bontenbal called the PVV’s departure “reckless and irresponsible,” accusing Wilders of placing party over country “in internationally uncertain times.”
“For a year we’ve had to witness political amateurism, and the Netherlands came to a standstill,” Bontenbal said. “PVV, VVD, NSC, and BBB were mostly busy with themselves and not with the future of the Netherlands.”
He said the coalition’s collapse had further eroded public trust and defended the CDA’s opposition role as focused on building “a decent Netherlands.” He also condemned Wilders’s use of social media to steer policy: “He went into this exercise only to walk away from it. He has been abandoning the Netherlands for two years.”
Bontenbal called for continuity in governance, saying Prime Minister Dick Schoof should remain in place during the caretaker period. “Let’s maintain some calm, order, and consistency — and not send everyone packing.”
Nicolien van Vroonhoven, who recently replaced Pieter Omtzigt as leader of the NSC party, said Wilders’s walkout was “truly irresponsible.”
She described a brief meeting with coalition partners Tuesday morning, where Wilders insisted the other parties immediately agree to 10 of his asylum proposals. “We said: just give them to your minister and work them out. We will look at them in good faith,” she said. “But we could not agree to commit in advance.”
Forum for Democracy (FVD) expressed disappointment. Party leader Thierry Baudet said on X that FVD remains open to forming a new right-wing majority “in line with the will of the Dutch people.”
“Wilders had a real chance to improve the asylum and immigration system,” Baudet wrote. “For the first time in decades, a party in the Dutch government had the explicit goal of putting a stop to mass immigration. Wilders squandered this unique opportunity. A crying shame.”
D66 leader Rob Jetten said that the now-collapsed Dutch coalition led by far-right PVV leader Geert Wilders brought the country to a standstill instead of delivering results. “That man is unreliable, unpredictable, and doesn’t actually want to solve anything,” Jetten said of Wilders.
He firmly rejected the idea of the VVD, NSC, and BBB continuing as a minority cabinet with support from opposition parties like D66. “The smartest move now is to go to the polls as quickly as possible,” he said.
Jetten said he is perfectly fine with Prime Minister Dick Schoof staying on to lead a caretaker government until new elections are held. “And if they come forward with good proposals, D66 will consider them constructively,” he said, pointing to possible commitments on defense spending after this month’s NATO summit.
SGP leader Chris Stoffer expressed disappointment, saying the coalition had failed on every major issue. “The signal from voters a year and a half ago was clear: stricter asylum policy, housing, and nitrogen issues,” Stoffer said. “On none of these themes have PVV, VVD, NSC, and BBB delivered.”
He called the lost time “irresponsible,” especially with problems like migration, integration, housing costs, and agricultural uncertainty still unresolved. He said the SGP would continue to work constructively despite the Cabinet’s fall.
Frederik Zevenbergen, VVD’s regional minister in Zuid-Holland, responded with frustration on X: “What a mess across the street. Another year of stagnation. No houses, no roads, no investments — no solutions. This country deserves so much better.”
The opposition party DENK called the collapse of the coalition “good news for all of the Netherlands.” Party leader Stephan van Baarle said he wants new elections as soon as possible. According to DENK, the Schoof cabinet was “far-right, antisocial, and the most racist government the country has ever known.”
“This cabinet was a frontal assault on human rights, on Muslims, and on the Netherlands,” Van Baarle said. “The fight to keep the far right out of government for good starts today.”
He accused VVD, BBB, and NSC of tolerating PVV leader Geert Wilders’ hate for months. Van Baarle placed particular blame on the conservative VVD and its leader Dilan Yeşilgöz, saying they helped elevate Wilders and install the cabinet. “They should be ashamed and held accountable,” he said.
Frans Timmermans, leader of the GroenLinks-PvdA, called for new elections. “The Netherlands deserves a government that brings people together and works shoulder to shoulder on real solutions,” Timmermans posted on X.
Timmermans criticized the outgoing coalition, which he labeled the “Wilders-Yeşilgöz Cabinet,” as marked by “powerlessness, division, and constant infighting.” He added: “This is what happens when you hand power to the extremes.”
Speaking to reporters, he described the coalition’s downfall as a relief. “We’ve been stuck for so long. No problems were being tackled, let alone solved. People are fed up,” he said. “I also feel a certain sense of relief.”
Esther Ouwehand, leader of the Party for the Animals (PvdD), welcomed the fall of the Cabinet. “New hope for animals, people, nature, and the climate!” she wrote in response.
Ouwehand said the government’s collapse had long been inevitable and argued it should never have been formed in the first place. “This is the end of scapegoat politics,” she said. The PvdD is calling for new elections and says the Netherlands needs a “new, fair government.”
Socialist Party (SP) leader Jimmy Dijk called the government’s collapse a relief. “This is liberation from a political hostage situation,” he said, calling the coalition a “collection of right-wing squabbling parties” that achieved little beyond cuts to health care, education, and elderly care. “Asocial.”
Dijk called for elections, saying the SP would “put the future of our country first — for our youth and a strong economy.”
Volt leader Laurens Dassen also welcomed the collapse, describing it as a chance for renewal. “The ‘bickering Cabinet’ is gone,” he posted on BlueSky. “It’s time for politics that connects instead of divides, that looks outward instead of inward. Politics for the next generation.” He said the PVV-led coalition had made the Netherlands “less green, less fair, and less safe.”