VVD State Secretary for Asylum Affairs Eric van der Burg is on a collision course with his own party members in the House of Representatives. Van der Burg is working on a law that he can use to force municipalities that refuse to accept asylum seekers to do so.

But this is met with resistance from the VVD faction, insiders report news hour.

The draft law, which has become known as the compulsory law in The Hague, should have been ready by October 1st so that it could come into force on January 1st. But now it’s mid-October and the law isn’t ready yet.

The federal states, municipalities and coalition parties CDA, D66 and ChristenUnie have already approved the law, but the VVD thwarts the plan. According to sources, the proposal was due to be approved by the Council of Ministers last week but was canceled at the last minute.

Liberals want the law to be temporary, not permanent, as the proposal now says. And according to the VVD, a maximum should be accepted per municipality so that the number of asylum seekers that a municipality has to accept is limited.

To accommodate his own party, Van der Burg has now renamed the bill the “Partition Act”. In terms of content, however, he does not want to make any further concessions. Tensions have run high during discussions on this issue over the past few days. “The Secretary of State is done with it,” said Van der Burg sources.