Has the time come for the Dutch farmers’ party?

There are 17.9 million residents in the Netherlands, and this year the country expects 45,000 requests for asylum. Barges, tents and sports halls are full of people waiting for their claim to be processed, while the country is suffering a housing crisis largely due to historic under-building.

Last year the country made headlines around the world when people were forced to sleep rough outside an asylum registration centre in Ter Apel, a baby died in a crowded sports hall in the town, and the country’s own Médecins Sans Frontières stepped in to offer aid.

Asylum is the issue that set off a bomb under the fourth government led by prime minister Mark Rutte, who late on Friday night announced his four-party coalition had collapsed. ‘It’s no secret that the coalition parties think very differently about asylum policy and today we unfortunately need to draw the conclusion that the differences are unbridgeable,’ he said.