A nation is not really a nation if it cannot control its borders, and therefore issues surrounding immigration should be decided by national governments rather than at the European Union level, Dutch populist leader Geert Wilders argued.
Speaking at the sidelines of the Ambrosetti Forum in Italy over the weekend, Geert Wilders, whose Party for Freedom (PVV) serves as the major power broker behind the new government in the Netherlands, called for his country to be granted an “opt out” on Brussels immigration policies like has been afforded to Denmark.
“We have to be in charge of our own immigration rules, of our own asylum rules, of our own border controls. Any nation without being able to decide who is welcome in the home is not really a nation,” Wilders told CNBC.
The Dutch populist said that while his government does not advocate for a “Nexit” (ie the Netherlands leaving the European Union like the United Kingdom), restoring power to national governments, particularly on issues such as immigration could serve to alleviate some of the divisions within the bloc.
Wilders noted that while voters in many EU countries, such as his own, have voted for parties and governments running on platforms vowing to reduce immigration, pro-mass migration globalist figures such as EU Chief Ursula von der Leyen have remained in power in Brussels and thus stymie the will of voters in the Netherlands, whom Wilders has promised the “strictest-ever admission policy” on immigration.
“I believe that the majority of the decision-making should be in the nation-state and the national parliaments… It’s very important to try to toughen up our borders, but at the end of the day, we have to do it nationally.”
However, he noted that devolving powers to the national level, such as an “opt-out” on immigration, will not be an easy task, saying: “Europe is a kind of monster, the European Union, if you give it more power they only want more and they won’t give it back.”
Wilders also rejected the notion that mass migration was necessary for Dutch economic growth and to maintain its population levels, arguing that the influx of mostly young males was putting further strains on the already stretched-thin housing market in the Netherlands and thereby hindering indigenous Dutch people from forming their own families.
The comments from Wilders come amid a looming showdown within the EU over the scheme to redistribute migrants throughout the bloc. While countries in southern Europe, particularly those along the Mediterranean Sea, argued that they have shouldered an unequal burden from illegal immigration, other nations, particularly Hungary and Poland, in turn, argued that they have taken pains to enact strict border controls and should not be punished for the failures of other EU member states to control their own borders.
The conflict between Brussels and Budapest — where Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has also called for an “opt-out” on immigration — will come to a head on September 17th which will mark the final deadline for a €200 million fine against Hungary over its refusal to take in supposed asylum seekers from other EU nations.
In response, the government of Hungary has vowed that if it is forced to accept alleged asylum seekers, it will buy a “one-way” bus ticket for the migrants to Brussels after they have been processed. Budapest has also said that it plans to launch a counter-suit to recoup the costs of protecting EU borders along its southern frontier, where it has erected a border fence to stop the flow of illegals into Hungary and therefore into the EU.
