A split over refugees has left the Dutch with no government

LIKE most things Dutch, the asylum-seekers’ centre in Rijswijk, a suburb of The Hague, is clean, rectilinear and well-organised. The housing units’ aluminium exteriors are as shiny and elegant as a VanMoof bicycle. Pupils from Syria and Afghanistan march cheerfully down the pavement, escorted by blonde teachers. The centre has room for up to 500 residents, but the actual number is lower. Since March 2016, when an agreement between the European Union and Turkey closed off the migration route across the Aegean, the stream of asylum-seekers arriving in the Netherlands has slowed to a trickle. Some of the reception centres set up at the height of the migrant crisis have never been used.

With the number of refugees shrinking, one would think asylum might drop off the political agenda. Instead, it is the issue that will not die. In mid-June a clash over migration policy torpedoed coalition negotiations that have dragged on since an election in March. At the time, that election was hailed across Europe as a rejection of anti-immigrant populists such as Geert Wilders. Yet three months later the Netherlands still has no government, and the election’s meaning seems less clear.