Geert Wilders threatened today to bring down the fragile governing coalition if his tough demands for illegal immigration.

After winning the November 2023 parliamentary elections, the Freedom Party (PVV) has the largest number of MPs in the Dutch governing coalition, and if the party leaves the coalition, a political crisis could ensue and the country could be forced into new elections.

“Our patience is now at an end. The voters who brought the PVV to the top party have the right to a government that keeps its commitments,” Wilders said at a hastily scheduled press conference.

The PVV leader presented a plan of ten measures which he said should be implemented “within a few weeks at most.”

The measures include strengthening border controls and deporting people with dual citizenship who have been convicted of a crime.

“Let’s stop opening asylum centers. Let’s close them,” he demanded.

“Tens of thousands of Syrians should return to their country. And if you, as foreigners, seriously overstep the boundaries and behave badly, you should leave the country,” Wilders continued. If, in his view, the changes are not sufficient or if nothing changes, “then we will leave,” he warned.

Wilders acknowledged that full implementation of some measures would take more than a few weeks, but nevertheless called for the necessary decisions to be taken as soon as possible.

Wilders has threatened to withdraw his party from the governing coalition on other occasions, but the government led by Prime Minister Dick Schoof has so far survived.

In the election, the PVV won 37 seats in the 150-seat parliament, making it by far the largest party in the coalition.