The Dutch government collapsed again in 2025, just as it did in 2023.
Both times, migration sat at the heart of the crisis. Both times, right-wing parties tore apart coalitions over immigration policies.
This isn’t coincidence. it’s the logical endpoint of decades where conservatism became obsessed with a single issue.
The Poisonous Legacy of Single-Issue Conservatism
Modern conservatism in the Netherlands has abandoned its traditional breadth.
Where conservative parties once balanced economic policy, social values, and governance, they now revolve around migration above all else. This transformation started with politicians like Pim Fortuyn, who turned immigration into the defining political wedge. The pattern continued with Geert Wilders, whose Party for Freedom has spent years making migration the sole measuring stick of political success.
Volkert van der Graaf, Fortuyn’s assassin, testified that he became alarmed by how Fortuyn was using immigrants as scapegoats to seek political power. That warning went unheeded.
Today, Wilders has perfected this playbook, turning every political question into a migration question.
How Migration Obsession Destroys Governance
The 2025 collapse tells the whole story.
Wilders withdrew his PVV from the governing coalition because his partners wouldn’t agree to ten additional asylum measures. These included freezing applications and limiting family reunification. Never mind that many of these proposals were already part of the coalition agreement. Never mind that several had been dismissed earlier for legal concerns.
Wilders walked out after just one minute in a final meeting with coalition partners. His former allies accused him of engineering the crisis.
VVD leader Dilan Yesilgoz called it "super irresponsible," while BBB deputy Prime Minister Mona Keijzer said Wilders was "betraying the Netherlands."
The 2023 government collapse followed a similar script. Mark Rutte’s coalition fell apart over “irreconcilable differences” on migration policy. Four parties that had managed to agree on budgets, climate policy, and social programmes couldn’t find common ground on asylum seekers.
The Broader Conservative Crisis Across Europe and America
This migration fixation isn’t unique to the Netherlands. Across Europe and America, conservatism has narrowed itself into a single-issue movement. Traditional conservative principles like fiscal responsibility, institutional respect, and gradual reform have given way to anti-migration populism.
France's Marine Le Pen, Germany's Alternative for Germany, and America's Trump movement all share this pattern. They reduce complex governance to simple us-versus-them narratives about immigration. They promise that controlling borders will solve economic inequality, cultural anxiety, and political dysfunction.
The result is governments that cannot govern. When every policy debate becomes a migration debate, nothing else gets done.
Infrastructure crumbles while politicians argue about asylum seekers. Economic challenges go unaddressed while parties compete over who can be toughest on immigration.
Why Critics Are Wrong About Political Necessity
Some will argue that right-wing parties simply respond to voter concerns about immigration. They’ll say that migration brings real challenges around integration, housing, and cultural change. These concerns deserve serious policy responses, not dismissal.
However, there is a world of difference between addressing immigration thoughtfully and making it the sole focus of politics. Countries need comprehensive governance, not single-issue obsession. Voters care about healthcare, education, housing costs, and economic opportunity alongside migration concerns.
When politicians like Wilders make migration the only issue that matters, they’re not serving voters – they’re serving their own political ambitions. They’re using immigrants as scapegoats to seek political power, exactly as van der Graaf warned about Fortuyn.
Breaking Free from Single-Issue Paralysis
The Netherlands needs political parties that can walk and chew gum at the same time.
They need conservatives who remember that conservatism once meant careful stewardship of institutions, prudent fiscal management, and gradual social change. They need progressives who can address migration concerns without abandoning their broader agenda.
Most urgently, they need coalition partners willing to work on the full range of governance challenges. The current system encourages parties to switch based on single issues, creating unstable governments that collapse when any one topic becomes contentious.
Political parties should commit to staying in government unless fundamental democratic principles are at stake. They should agree that policy disagreements on migration, climate, or economics don’t justify bringing down coalitions. They should remember that governing means making difficult compromises on multiple issues simultaneously.
The Price of Political Selfishness
October’s elections will test whether Dutch voters reward or punish Wilders for his latest government collapse. Polls show the PVV and Labour/Green Left alliance running neck-and-neck, suggesting voters might prefer stability to disruption.
Yet, the damage is already done. The Netherlands faces months of caretaker government while Europe grapples with economic challenges, security threats, and climate change. Coalition partners who were once willing to work with Wilders now call him “irresponsible” and “untrustworthy.”
When conservatism becomes nothing more than anti-migration politics, everyone loses. Immigrants face scapegoating and discrimination. Native-born citizens get governments that can’t function.
Democratic institutions suffer as political stability becomes impossible.
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