Geert Wilders has said his PVV party is leaving the Dutch coalition Government, toppling the current administration and likely leading to new elections.
Wilders said his coalition partners in the Dutch Government were not willing to embrace his ideas on halting asylum migration, for which he had demanded immediate support last week.
The hard-right leader wrote on social media: "No signature under our asylum plans. The PVV leaves the coalition."
Meanwhile, Dick Schoof announced he would step down from his position as Dutch Prime Minister, plunging the government into uncertainty.
Geert Wilders
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Geert Wilders speaks to media in The Hague, Netherlands
Reuters
Wilders and his PVV party won the most recent election in the Netherlands, however recent polls have shown he has lost support since joining Government.
Polls now put his party roughly at par with the Labour/Green combination that is currently the second-largest in parliament.
Last week, the PVV put forward a 10-point plan to reduce immigration, which was met with deadlock by the other right-wing parties.
It included a call to halt asylum and temporarily stop the reunification of families for all asylum seekers who have been granted refugee status.
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Geert Wilders voiced his disappointment at the coalition talksGETTY
VVD leader Dilan Yeşilgöz-Zegerius said the announcement made the government 'look like a fool'
Reuters
Sir Keir Starmer and Netherlands' Prime Minister Dick Schoof
Reuters
The leader of the conservative VVD party Dilan Yesilgoz said: "This is making us look like a fool. There is a war on our continent. Instead of meeting the challenge, Wilders is showing he is not willing to take responsibility."
Leader of the centrist NSC party Nicolien van Vroonhoven added: "This is incredible. It is irresponsible to take down the Government at this point."
Among the PVV's proposals were plans to send Syrian refugees back to their home country and to close asylum shelters.
Coalition partners did not embrace his idea, and had said it was up to the migration minister from Wilders's own party to work on specific proposals.
Wilders was convicted of discrimination after he insulted Moroccans at a campaign rally in 2014 and only managed to strike a coalition deal with three other conservative parties last year after he gave up his bid to become Prime Minister.
Instead, the cabinet was led by the independent and unelected Dick Schoof, a career bureaucrat who had led the Dutch intelligence agency AIVD and was the senior official at the ministry of justice.
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