Foreign press on fall of Dutch cabinet

The Spanish newspaper El Pais says the fall of the Dutch cabinet amounted to a “very expensive new passport for the Somali” Ayaan Hirsi Ali. The English newspaper The Financial Times says the Hirsi Ali affair placed the Netherlands “in a very bad light”.

Belgium’s left-wing De Morgen says the Dutch cabinet fell because of Immigration Minister “Rita Verdonk’s umpteenth controversy”, while Belgian financial newspaper De Tijd blames the democrat party D66 for the fall of the cabinet. Germany’s Die Welt speaks of “an unexpected political crisis in a country whose politics have been inflamed by emotions”. The newspaper regards the collapse of the government as a humiliation for the Netherlands.

Source: Radio Netherlands, 1 July 2006