THE HAGUE: Netherlands’ Prime Minister Mark Rutte announced on Monday that he would quit politics after the fall of his coalition government, in a shock decision ending the career of the country’s longest-serving PM.
Rutte, who has led four coalition governments since 2010, announced the ending of the four-party coalition on Friday because of differences over limits on the number of asylum seekers.
Rutte told parliament that he decided that he was no longer suited to be the new leader of the list for the VVD (his center-right party). When the new government is sworn in after the polls, he will quit politics, according to AFP.
Rutte has said that he was staying on in a caretaker capacity until polls, which would be held in mid-November at the earliest.
Politics of No Confidence Vote
But he faces a vote in legislature later Monday that will try to topple him as caretaker prime minister.
Two left-wing opposition parties and the far-right party of anti-Islam leader Geert Wilders have submitted a motion of no-confidence against the PM.
To succeed, the vote needed the support of at least one of the four parties in Rutte’s coalition that ended on Friday.
