Geert Wilders (Photo: Robin van Lonkhuijsen/EPA)

Far-right Dutch MP Geert Wilders has announced his Freedom Party will leave the ruling four-party coalition over a dispute over immigration, triggering a political crisis that could lead to early elections, the Associated Press and Reuters reported.

Along with ending support for the coalition, Wilders is withdrawing his ministers from the Dutch Cabinet.

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"I signed up for the toughest asylum policy, not for the collapse of the Netherlands," he said.

As the AP notes, after years in opposition, Wilders' party won the last election thanks to promises to reduce migration.

Last week, Wilders demanded that his coalition partners sign a 10-point plan aimed at radically reducing migration, including using the army to guard the country's land borders.

He then declared that if immigration policy was not strengthened, his party would "withdraw from the Cabinet."

As Reuters notes, the political crisis in the Netherlands occurred three weeks before the planned summit of NATO leaders in The Hague.

The Netherlands will have to host NATO leaders with an interim government, which will likely force the country to postpone a decision on a potentially historic increase in defense spending to meet the Alliance's new goals.

  • On November 22, 2023, the Netherlands held snap parliamentary elections, called due to disagreements within the government over immigration policy. The victory was won by Geert Wilders' far-right Party for Freedom.
  • On April 24, 2025, the Speaker of the Lower House of the Dutch Parliament, Martin Bosma, a representative of the far-right Freedom Party, proposed to the French ambassador to divide the territory of Belgium between the Netherlands and France.