I’m surprised that this hasn’t been getting more prominent headlines. The government of Jan Peter Balkenende has fallen over a controversy resulting from the horrid Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk’s threat to strip Ayaan Hirsi Ali of Dutch citizenship.
From the BBC:
A junior partner in the coalition, the centrist D-66 party, walked out after failing to get Mrs Verdonk sacked.
It objected to the way she had handled the citizenship case of a Somali-born Dutch MP, Ayaan Hirsi Ali.
The MP has been under police protection since a militant Islamist murdered Theo van Gogh, her collaborator on a film they made lambasting the treatment of women in Islamic society.
Mrs Verdonk threatened to strip Ms Hirsi Ali of her Dutch citizenship for lying in her asylum application in 1992.
But this week Mrs Verdonk did a U-turn, claiming she had found a legal loophole that would allow Ms Hirsi Ali to stay in the Netherlands.
Also more from Scott Martens at A Fistful of Euros here. And more here in Der Spiegel.