Holland. Prime Minister Rutte Resigns

Turnaround in Holland: with a statement in Parliament that took everyone by surprise, Prime Minister Mark Rutte announced that he was totally leaving politics. The sensational decision was based on sharp disagreements on migration policy.

After submitting his resignation to King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands last Saturday, Mark Rutte, the 56-year-old longest-serving prime minister in the history of the Netherlands, today made a surprise statement in Parliament in The Hague, saying he came to a radical decision to step down from the stage after “unbridgeable differences within the majority coalition on asylum policy.”

“There has been a lot of speculation in recent days about what might have motivated me. The only answer is: The Netherlands. My position is completely subordinate to this. When a new government comes to power after the elections, I will retire from politics, ”Rutte said, referring to the conflict in the coalition over the asylum policy. Rutte has always supported the introduction of a stricter set of rules than the current situation. Over the weekend, several political parties in government ruled out a future coalition with the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy, the liberal-conservative party led by Rutte for the past 17 years. According to Dutch media, “this move took observers by surprise, given Rutte’s ability to walk away unscathed from more heated political clashes.” There are those who argue that Rutte, nicknamed “Teflon Mark” in the Netherlands, would not have told “the whole truth about the causes” since last Friday when the prime said that he had the “energy and ideas” to again aspire to the position of prime minister.

Thus, the coalition government headed by Rutte lasted only for a year and a half before falling after months of debate about measures to curb the flow of migrants, which tore the political coalition apart. The crisis in The Hague has set the stage for a new general election that is likely to take place in autumn.