On another collapse - Matina Stevis-Gridneff and Claire Moses in NYT:

‘The collapse of a Dutch coalition government over a proposed refugee policy has once again underscored the potency of immigration as an arbiter of Europe’s politics and how stopping far-right parties from capitalizing on it is a growing problem for mainstream politicians.
The current crisis in the Netherlands was precipitated by its conservative prime minister, Mark Rutte, who resigned after his centrist coalition partners refused to back his tough new policy on refugees.
Dutch news outlets reported that Mr. Rutte had proposed, among other things, a two-year waiting period before the children of recognized refugees living in the Netherlands could join their parents, a nonstarter for his coalition partners.
For Mr. Rutte, a deft operator known as “Teflon Mark” for his resilience over 13 years in power, holding the line on an issue that many of his voters care deeply about was a matter of political survival, analysts say, that went beyond the life span of this particular coalition.’

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‘In the European context, the Netherlands barely registers as a country with a serious migration problem. It is the bloc’s fourth-richest nation, but the refugee population that it hosts, as a percentage of its population, ranks right on the E.U. average. Still, the number of people seeking asylum in the Netherlands has grown over the past year, in step with the overall trend in Europe.
But Dutch analysts say that a critical issue that feeds the angst over migration is an affordable housing crisis, reinforced by the idea that the country, with its growing population and sprawling agricultural sector, is running out of space.
Critics say the tough line Mr. Rutte advocated would have had a limited impact even if it were enacted. The number of refugees in the Netherlands looking to have family members join them is so small, said Mark Klaassen, an assistant professor of immigration law at the Leiden University, that it would not make a meaningful dent in the total number of refugees.
Mr. Klaassen said that Mr. Rutte, known as a consensus builder who had previously been unwilling to use migration politics to his own advantage, seemed to be changing his stance. “What is new is that with this development, migration law is being used to gain political advantage,” Mr. Klaassen added.
Mr. Klaassen said that Mr. Rutte’s migration woes were partly his own government’s making. Slow processing has worsened bottlenecks in the asylum process, Mr. Klaassen said. And the lack of affordable housing has led recognized refugees to overstay in processing centers because they struggle to find permanent homes, causing overcrowding and inhumane living conditions.’

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‘The government’s collapse delighted Mr. Wilders, the right-wing leader, who wrote on Twitter that its end would make the Netherlands a “beautiful country again, with fewer asylum seekers and crime, more money and housing for our own people.” But what happens next in Dutch politics is not clear, and probably will not be until an election can be held, most likely in November.’

Read the article here.

What happens next is unclear, but it seems that Mr. Rutte is willing to go back to a government with the help of extreme-right parties, as he did in his first cabinet which lasted from 2010-2012.

November is far away, but the ideal scapegoat, the foreigner i.e. the asylum seeker, is alive and kicking, when he is not drowning in the Mediterranean or rotting away in a detention center.

The specter of Evian-les-Bains is hunting Europe.