Pieter Omtzigt wants stricter immigration rules for the Netherlands, according to the election manifesto of his new party NSC. The leading candidate wants to limit the migration balance – the number of immigrants minus emigrants – to 50,000 people a year. This includes refugees, students, expats and migrant workers. The NSC’s programme also focuses on good governance, social security and adequate housing.
Omtzigt’s NSC is doing very well in the polls. Dutch voters have lost faith in politics and are eager to see new faces in parliament and the cabinet. According to the latest poll by Maurice de Hond, the NSC will win 28 seats in the parliamentary elections on 22 November, making it the largest party in the Tweede Kamer. The VVD is in second place with 26 seats, followed by the GroenLiks-PvdA with 24.
The fact that Omtzigt wants to get tough on migration comes as no surprise. Over the summer, he gave a speech in Leeuwarden in which he criticised the government for not making clear policy decisions and allowing migration to “happen” in the Netherlands. He also suggested that the Netherlands should apply for an ‘opt-out’ in Europe, allowing it to deviate from European asylum rules and accept fewer asylum seekers. And he proposed a distinction between temporary and permanent protection for asylum seekers.
Omtzigt has also long campaigned against the ‘globalisation’ of the Netherlands, and in particular Dutch universities. He wants to limit the number of international students in the Netherlands by no longer favouring them with scholarships and by restricting the number of English courses at educational institutions.
He also wants to reduce the number of migrant workers in the Netherlands. Experts have previously advised against this, pointing to the country’s labour shortages and describing knowledge migrants in particular as the “goose that lays the golden egg”.
Achieving a migration balance of 50,000 will be quite a challenge. According to Statistics Netherlands (CBS), the number was 223,798 last year.
The NSC was the last party to present its programme for the Tweede Kamer elections on 22 November.
