Mark Rutte, longest serving PM of Netherlands, calls it quits after govt collapse

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said on Monday that he will not participate in the upcoming general elections, effectively ending his 17-year-long political career.

The decision of Rutte, the longest-serving prime minister of the Netherlands, follows the collapse of his government last week.

“On Sunday I decided that I will not be available as a leader for the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy VVD in the upcoming elections,” Rutte told the Dutch parliament Monday.

Despite having “energy and ideas” to continue, the 56-year-old Dutch leader said that it was a “personal decision, regardless of the developments in recent weeks”.

 “I do this with mixed feelings, with emotions…I love the team dearly. But it feels right,” he said.

On Friday, the four-party ruling coalition quit after failing to secure a package of measures to rein in migration.

Rutte said that the decision of the four parties to resign was unanimous and was prompted by “irreconcilable differences”.

For the last 17 years, Rutte was the leader of the VVD, and for 13 years he has been serving as the prime minister.

So far, no replacement of Rutte as the leader of VVD has been announced. The party’s parliamentary faction is being led by Sophie Hermans, Rutte’s former political assistant.

It is unclear when the impending elections will take place, but local media reports suggested that it can either be in October or November.

Until then, Rutte said that he will continue as a caretaker prime minister.

Rutte said that his job till then would be to smoothen the functioning of the government during his limited time as the outgoing administration cannot make new legislations and policies.  

“But there are always urgent issues that require decisions now,” Rutte said, referring to the Ukraine war, supporting victims of earthquakes in Groningen city and a government childcare benefits scandal.

When asked what he will be doing post the retirement from active politics, the outgoing prime minister, who is currently teaching social studies once a week at a local school in The Hague, responded, “Maybe I will do that for a few days."

In his 13-year-long reign as the PM, Rutte has steered his party through various crises. His ability to negate political crises — including a scandal over childcare subsidies which caused him to briefly resign in January 2021 only to return to power two months later after his VVD party finished first in the national elections, has won him the nickname “Teflon Mark”.

On Friday, his coalition government could not agree to a unanimous asylum policy due to which they resigned.

Rutte’s VVD party wanted to limit family reunions for asylum seekers fleeing from war zones but ran into opposition from the ChristenUnie, the smallest member of the four-party coalition, which said it was unwilling to break up families.