Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte announced this Monday that he will retire from active politics after the country’s early legislative elections in the fall at an as-yet-unannounced date.
The announcement was made during a special session of the Dutch Parliament, which culminated in a vote of no confidence in the Rutte government, this Monday morning.
The prime minister tendered her resignation to King Willem-Alexander on Saturday, after announcing earlier in the day that she could not continue as head of government.
At the time, Rutte accused him of having “irreconcilable differences” with two coalition partners, the D66 progressives and the Christian Union, over refugee asylum policy, but gave no indication that he would deviate from the policy in the coming months.
According to Rudd, the decision to give up leadership The Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD, center-right) and decided not to run for prime minister again on Sunday morning.
“Once the new government is in place, after the election, I will leave politics,” Rutte said on Monday morning.
International standards
At 56, after nearly 13 consecutive years at the helm of the Dutch government, Rutte cannot escape seeing his name associated with international posts, particularly as Secretary General of NATO and President of the European Commission.
According to site The Netherlands’ current prime minister told Politico on Monday that he is not interested in international posts.
Rutte, who first took office as head of government in October 2010, is the second longest-serving prime minister in an EU country, surpassed only by Hungary’s Viktor Orbán (May 2010).
The fall of the Dutch government (Rutte’s fourth) followed his party’s rejection of a proposed coalition government. Second The VVD proposal for a new asylum system would have more rights for persecuted refugees than for war refugees.
The new system, rejected by D66 and the Christian Union, would limit the number of family members of war refugees to 200 per year who would be allowed to enter the Netherlands. And the children of these refugees already living in the country have to wait two years to get an entry permit.
Number of asylum applications in the Netherlands – Most Syrian citizens – The number has increased from 36,620 in 2021 to 47,991 in 2022, and will exceed 70,000 in 2023, the country’s officials estimate.
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