Dutch asylum crisis creating tension between local and national government
In the media image: Ewien van Bergeijk-Kwant
Local parties promising to close asylum reception centres, municipalities wanting to fine central agency COA, and protecting our democratic rule of law against far-right influences: Geerten Boogaard comments on these issues in the media.
Local right-wing parties often promise they will stop an asylum seekers’ centre opening in the neighbourhood. But in Met het Oog op Morgen, on NPO Radio 1, Boogaard says there is ‘little leeway for municipalities to decide on this themselves’. The professor emphasises that municipalities do have influence on the implementation, but not on the decision in principle. They must comply with the Spreidingswet, a legal duty for municipalities to help provide asylum reception places. This has been determined and adopted by the State. Boogaard: 'it is good that municipalities express their own dissenting voice in the form of resistance – that’s part of the democratic process – but it’s the government that ultimately decides.' Problem areas such as nitrogen emmisions and housing construction also show that political conflicts are increasingly occurring that cannot be solved with endless consultations. 'We need to make progress in these areas,' says the professor.
An analysis in De Groene Amsterdammer about making the Netherlands 'Trump-proof' discusses the authoritarian tendencies that are currently visible at the local level and that make democracy vulnerable. Boogaard points out that many policies depend on local implementation, such as enforcement and the reception of refugees. This gives municipalities room to actually steer political choices. He argues that this decentralised power 'can act as a countervailing power’, but warns that the same autonomy can also lead to 'the obstruction of national policy'.
An article on the NOS news site shows that an increasing number of municipalities are threatening to fine COA if the promised closure of an asylum centre in their municipality does not take place or if the reception location risks becoming overcrowded. The question is whether these fines actually help. Boogaard believes they have little effect: 'the instrument has become blunt.' It does not create a real incentive, and the money remains, as it were, within the government. The issue highlights that the national government is increasingly having to deal with conflicting interests.
More information?
- Listen to the broadcast of Met het Oog op Morgen, NPO-Radio 1 (from 31 min, in Dutch)
- Read the article in De Groene Amsterdammer (€, in Dutch)
- Read the NOS article (in Dutch)