(AP) The new hard-right Dutch government pledged Tuesday to launch stricter policies to hold back or kick out migrants who don’t qualify for asylum, as the king laid out the administration’s plans in a speech to open the parliamentary year.
Dutch King Willem-Alexander, a mostly ceremonial monarch, summarized the wide-ranging policy blueprint for the coming year and beyond a day after members of the hard right-led coalition publicly bickered over its plans to slash migration, underscoring divisions even within the four-party coalition over how to push through the reforms.
The speech was a formal expression of the country’s sharp turn to the right after last year’s election victory by the populist anti-immigration Party for Freedom led by Geert Wilders, which echoed a sentiment that is spreading across Europe.
