Send in the Clowns
The Dutch political circus has breathed new life into a nearly forgotten Mark Twain cliché: get your facts straight before you distort them.
When immigration minister Rita Verdonk announced last May that Aryan Hirshi Ali, the fiery, Sommalian-born anti-Islam member of Dutch Parliament, had lied to immigration authorities in order to obtain Dutch citizenship, it was not quite the shot heard ‘round the world. But, as it turned out, it was the latest in a series of circus acts performed by the current Dutch government.
Back in 2002 the first Balkenende cabinet had allied themselves with the rightwing LPF party (the party originally founded by Pim Fortuyn before his assassination). That government only lasted three months, basically due to in-fighting among LPF ministers. A coalition party, the VVD, pulled the plug on this cabinet and new elections were called. The result of these elections was the second Balkenende cabinet, this time with three coalition partners, Balkenende’s Christian Democrats, the center-right VVD and the center-left D66.
The legacy of the first Balkenende cabinet was the adoption of LPF’s immigration, anti-Islamic policies. This legacy and these policies formed the basis for the second Balkenende cabinet and Minister Verdonk’s role in the Hirshi Ali affair.
Controversy is nothing new for Rita Verdonk. A shoot-from-the-hip, supposedly “true-blue” politician, Verdonk’s hard-line immigration policies have led her to clash time and again with opposition parties in Parliament.
The timeline:
In March 2005, in response to claims by asylum seekers in a Dutch television program, the minister releases information about some of these persons to the public, something unheard of under Dutch privacy laws. The Dutch Labor Party and the Socialist Party submit a motion of no-confidence in Verdonk, but a government majority backs the immigration minister.
December 2005: Verdonk apologizes to Dutch Parliament about her handling of a group of Congolese refugees. Although they claimed that, if returned to the Congo, their lives would be in danger, the minister assured everyone concerned that no one in the Congo would know that they had applied for asylum in the Netherlands. As it turned out, however, their status was clearly shown on the traveling papers they needed to return to their country. Verdonk claims that this had been done without her knowledge. Under fire from her own coalition, she finally accepts responsibility for the blunder and formally apologizes. The motion to send her back to private life is defeated.
In April 2006, opposition parties in Dutch Parliament demand that Rita Verdonk resign because of another immigration blunder that came to light. Having decided to return a group of Syrian refugees to their country of origin (Syria), she failed to inform the Parliament of the fact that Syrian intelligence agents were present at the discussions. No one knows what happened to the refugees, but Verdonk fires two of her top civil servants in the immigration service and stays in her post.
Also in April 2006, Verdonk announces that she plans to deport Iranian asylum seekers and send them back to Iran. Since these refugees are both homosexuals and Christians, their chances of leading a normal life, or even surviving this one, in Iran are exceedingly slim. Not long before, the Iranian authorities had hung two homosexuals in a public square. This time a majority in Parliament draws the line. Unconvinced that these refugees could be returned to Iran without fearing for their lives, Parliament prevails and Rita Verdonk reverses her decision.
Still in April 2006, a busy month for Rita Verdonk, a fire in a cell complex at Schiphol Airport causes the death of 11 detainees. The investigating committee claims that Verdonk had released or promised to release six witnesses to the incident, presumably because she does not want them to testify. The person in charge of the investigating committee is Peter Van Vollenhoven, a member of the Dutch royal family. Behind closed doors, Mr. Van Vollenhoven changes his mind and refuses to file a complaint. Verdonk, a political Houdini of sorts, escapes once again.
Then there is the case of an 18-year-old schoolgirl who was in her last year of school at a Dutch high school and wanted to stay in the Netherlands long enough to graduate. Can’t do, Minister Verdonk concluds, because the girl had already been sent packing months before and had re-entered the country under false pretenses. Off with head! Not literally, of course, but Verdonk takes her side of the story to a Dutch newspaper. In doing so, she again releases private information from the schoolgirl’s dossier. A Dutch court rules that the girl should be returned to her country of origin. After surviving countless questions in Parliament, Verdonk -- sometimes called Iron Rita after Lady Thatcher -- is free to continue her series of blunders in Dutch politics.
The biggest blunder so far comes in May 2006 when, after hearing Aryan Hirshi Ali claim that she had lied to obtain her Dutch nationality, the minister announces that Ms. Ali is not a Dutch citizen and ergo has no right to be a Member of Parliament, following which Hirshi Ali resigns from her elected post. Needless to say, the Dutch Parliament once again entertains a motion of no-confidence in Rita Verdonk for her handling of the matter, particularly in a case that involves a Member of Parliament. The motion fails, a compromised is reached and Ms. Verdonk agrees to study the situation to see whether it would be legally possible for Hirshi Ali to keep her Dutch citizenship after all.
Six weeks after Verdonk says that Hirshi Ali lied about her name and date of birth and therefore was no longer a Dutch citizen, she informs the Parliament that Ali did not lie about her name and that she could keep her Dutch passport. According to Verdonk, Sommalian Law [sic] allowed their citizens to use other names handed down in family lines. In this case, “Ali” was such a name. So, problem solved. Somalian Law is substituted for Dutch Law and the name "Ali" is legal after all. Not sure what happened to the date of birth (Ali claimed that she was two years older than she was). But never mind. All she has to do now is to sign a simple statement of fact, along with a confession of guilt and a pledge of alliegance to Rita Verdonk, absolving the minister from any responsibility whatsoever, including -- presumably -- any mistakes or blunders she might make in future cabinets, her career in general or her private life in particular. Well, not quite.
Typically, during the long Parliamentary debate that follows, Ms. Verdonk repeatedly says words to the effect that she did not do anything wrong in this matter and she did not make any mistakes. Later that same evening, however, she begrudgingly admits that she “may” have made some mistakes, particularly by not doing the research in the first place when she announced that Ali was not entitled to Dutch citizenship.
When the Green Party introduces yet another motion of no-confidence in Verdonk, the government musters yet another majority to defeat it. At this point, Verdonk’s coalition partner, D66, announces that it has no confidence in the minister and that she would have to go if the coalition is to continue. Balkenende’s cabinet decides it would rather protect Verdonk than continue to work with D66 in the coalition.
Accordingly, the cabinet falls.
Update:
The clowns are back. The Balkenende Cabinet will continue for several months as a minority government, with limited decision-making powers. New elections will be held in November.
File under: Dutch, immigration, Verdonk, Balkenende, Hirshi Ali
When immigration minister Rita Verdonk announced last May that Aryan Hirshi Ali, the fiery, Sommalian-born anti-Islam member of Dutch Parliament, had lied to immigration authorities in order to obtain Dutch citizenship, it was not quite the shot heard ‘round the world. But, as it turned out, it was the latest in a series of circus acts performed by the current Dutch government.
Back in 2002 the first Balkenende cabinet had allied themselves with the rightwing LPF party (the party originally founded by Pim Fortuyn before his assassination). That government only lasted three months, basically due to in-fighting among LPF ministers. A coalition party, the VVD, pulled the plug on this cabinet and new elections were called. The result of these elections was the second Balkenende cabinet, this time with three coalition partners, Balkenende’s Christian Democrats, the center-right VVD and the center-left D66.
The legacy of the first Balkenende cabinet was the adoption of LPF’s immigration, anti-Islamic policies. This legacy and these policies formed the basis for the second Balkenende cabinet and Minister Verdonk’s role in the Hirshi Ali affair.
Controversy is nothing new for Rita Verdonk. A shoot-from-the-hip, supposedly “true-blue” politician, Verdonk’s hard-line immigration policies have led her to clash time and again with opposition parties in Parliament.
The timeline:
In March 2005, in response to claims by asylum seekers in a Dutch television program, the minister releases information about some of these persons to the public, something unheard of under Dutch privacy laws. The Dutch Labor Party and the Socialist Party submit a motion of no-confidence in Verdonk, but a government majority backs the immigration minister.
December 2005: Verdonk apologizes to Dutch Parliament about her handling of a group of Congolese refugees. Although they claimed that, if returned to the Congo, their lives would be in danger, the minister assured everyone concerned that no one in the Congo would know that they had applied for asylum in the Netherlands. As it turned out, however, their status was clearly shown on the traveling papers they needed to return to their country. Verdonk claims that this had been done without her knowledge. Under fire from her own coalition, she finally accepts responsibility for the blunder and formally apologizes. The motion to send her back to private life is defeated.
In April 2006, opposition parties in Dutch Parliament demand that Rita Verdonk resign because of another immigration blunder that came to light. Having decided to return a group of Syrian refugees to their country of origin (Syria), she failed to inform the Parliament of the fact that Syrian intelligence agents were present at the discussions. No one knows what happened to the refugees, but Verdonk fires two of her top civil servants in the immigration service and stays in her post.
Also in April 2006, Verdonk announces that she plans to deport Iranian asylum seekers and send them back to Iran. Since these refugees are both homosexuals and Christians, their chances of leading a normal life, or even surviving this one, in Iran are exceedingly slim. Not long before, the Iranian authorities had hung two homosexuals in a public square. This time a majority in Parliament draws the line. Unconvinced that these refugees could be returned to Iran without fearing for their lives, Parliament prevails and Rita Verdonk reverses her decision.
Still in April 2006, a busy month for Rita Verdonk, a fire in a cell complex at Schiphol Airport causes the death of 11 detainees. The investigating committee claims that Verdonk had released or promised to release six witnesses to the incident, presumably because she does not want them to testify. The person in charge of the investigating committee is Peter Van Vollenhoven, a member of the Dutch royal family. Behind closed doors, Mr. Van Vollenhoven changes his mind and refuses to file a complaint. Verdonk, a political Houdini of sorts, escapes once again.
Then there is the case of an 18-year-old schoolgirl who was in her last year of school at a Dutch high school and wanted to stay in the Netherlands long enough to graduate. Can’t do, Minister Verdonk concluds, because the girl had already been sent packing months before and had re-entered the country under false pretenses. Off with head! Not literally, of course, but Verdonk takes her side of the story to a Dutch newspaper. In doing so, she again releases private information from the schoolgirl’s dossier. A Dutch court rules that the girl should be returned to her country of origin. After surviving countless questions in Parliament, Verdonk -- sometimes called Iron Rita after Lady Thatcher -- is free to continue her series of blunders in Dutch politics.
The biggest blunder so far comes in May 2006 when, after hearing Aryan Hirshi Ali claim that she had lied to obtain her Dutch nationality, the minister announces that Ms. Ali is not a Dutch citizen and ergo has no right to be a Member of Parliament, following which Hirshi Ali resigns from her elected post. Needless to say, the Dutch Parliament once again entertains a motion of no-confidence in Rita Verdonk for her handling of the matter, particularly in a case that involves a Member of Parliament. The motion fails, a compromised is reached and Ms. Verdonk agrees to study the situation to see whether it would be legally possible for Hirshi Ali to keep her Dutch citizenship after all.
Six weeks after Verdonk says that Hirshi Ali lied about her name and date of birth and therefore was no longer a Dutch citizen, she informs the Parliament that Ali did not lie about her name and that she could keep her Dutch passport. According to Verdonk, Sommalian Law [sic] allowed their citizens to use other names handed down in family lines. In this case, “Ali” was such a name. So, problem solved. Somalian Law is substituted for Dutch Law and the name "Ali" is legal after all. Not sure what happened to the date of birth (Ali claimed that she was two years older than she was). But never mind. All she has to do now is to sign a simple statement of fact, along with a confession of guilt and a pledge of alliegance to Rita Verdonk, absolving the minister from any responsibility whatsoever, including -- presumably -- any mistakes or blunders she might make in future cabinets, her career in general or her private life in particular. Well, not quite.
Typically, during the long Parliamentary debate that follows, Ms. Verdonk repeatedly says words to the effect that she did not do anything wrong in this matter and she did not make any mistakes. Later that same evening, however, she begrudgingly admits that she “may” have made some mistakes, particularly by not doing the research in the first place when she announced that Ali was not entitled to Dutch citizenship.
When the Green Party introduces yet another motion of no-confidence in Verdonk, the government musters yet another majority to defeat it. At this point, Verdonk’s coalition partner, D66, announces that it has no confidence in the minister and that she would have to go if the coalition is to continue. Balkenende’s cabinet decides it would rather protect Verdonk than continue to work with D66 in the coalition.
Accordingly, the cabinet falls.
Update:
The clowns are back. The Balkenende Cabinet will continue for several months as a minority government, with limited decision-making powers. New elections will be held in November.
File under: Dutch, immigration, Verdonk, Balkenende, Hirshi Ali
posted by J. DeVincent at 4:03 AM
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