Why did the Dutch government collapse?

For months, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte negotiated over a package of measures to reduce the flow of new migrants arriving in the country of nearly 18 million people.

Proposals included creating two classes of asylum — a temporary one for people fleeing conflicts and a permanent one for people escaping persecution. Furthermore, he planned to reduce the number of family members allowed to join asylum seekers in the Netherlands. The minority Christian Union party strongly opposed the idea of blocking family members.

Rutte's  Forum for Democracy (VVD) party, supported by the Christian Democrat Appeal, also demanded limiting the entrance for children of war refugees already present in the country and making families wait two years before they can be reunited.

Pieter Heerma, the leader of the Christian Democrats, a coalition partner, called Rutte's approach in the talks “almost reckless.”

According to government statistics, asylum applications in the Netherlands jumped by a third last year to over 46,000, and are expected to increase to more than 70,000 this year — topping the previous high from 2015.

Immigration has been a hot-button issue across the European Union for years and was the final stumbling block that brought down Rutte's government Friday night, exposing the profound ideological differences between the four parties that made up the uneasy coalition.

Now it is likely to dominate campaigning for an election months away.

Opposition parties wasted no time in calling for a general election.

“We are the party that can ensure a majority to significantly restrict the flow of asylum seekers,” said Geert Wilders, leader of the anti-immigration Party for Freedom. He supported Rutte's first minority coalition 13 years ago, but