This week, the following events have been held national elections in the NetherlandsFor 36% of voters, immigration was the main issue in deciding their vote. This is not surprising considering that, in the last 20 years, four governments have fallen prematurely due to immigration and asylum issues, most recently in 2023 and 2025. Foreigners residing in the country represent 8.5% of the total population, and the annual number of people living in the country is a significant factor. Why, then, this obsession with immigration? I will give three reasons: one political, one socioeconomic, and one cultural.

They say that with sin comes penance. This is what William of Orange, King of the Netherlands, must be thinking right now, as he has been holding his breath since September until what he feared most finally happened. According to the newspaper NRC, the monarch would have interceded to find a good job for his sister-in-law and, on top of that, that job would have been found in the public administration. A full-blown ethical disaster for someone who, as we well know here thanks to that mythical Christmas message from King Juan Carlos, must be exemplary.