Netherlands Prime Minister Mark Rutte announced his retirement from politics Monday following the collapse of his coalition government last week. Photo by Remko De Waal/EPA-EFE
July 10 (UPI) — Netherlands Prime Minister Mark Rutte said Monday that he will step away from politics after the government collapsed.
Rutte informed parliament that he would not stand for the next election for the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy or VVD, ending a 17-year-stint as party leader and 12 years as prime minister.
“On Sunday I decided that I will not be available as a leader for the VVD in the upcoming elections,” he said.
“I do this with mixed feelings, with emotions. I love the team dearly. But it feels right,” said Rutte, who had stated on Friday that he wanted to stay on as leader of the VVD.
Rutte’s announcement came after his VVD-led coalition government fell apart Friday in a row over plans for a monthly cap of 200 on the number of relatives permitted to join asylum seekers already in the Netherlands. But center-leaning and pro-family parties in the coalition refused to support the move.
Rutte tendered his official resignation to King Willem-Alexander at his Huis ten Bosch residence in The Hague on Saturday.
Rutte, who at the king’s request will serve as caretaker leader until November’s elections, said he was not interested in any big international leadership roles reports have suggested he might be in the running for, such as European Commission president or NATO secretary general.
In a parliamentary debate Monday on the fall of Rutte’s cabinet, opposition parties paid tribute to Rutte but PvdA leader Attje Kuiken and GroenLinks leader Jesse Klaver called for his immediate departure to be replaced with a fresh leader from outside the VVD and tabled a motion of no confidence in Rutte.
The proposal requires support from at least one of the coalition parties — VVD, D66, CDA and ChristenUnie — to pass.
Freedom Party (PPV) leader Geert Wilders praising Rutte for his service said it was important to introduce a strict asylum policy. Wilders said the PVV, the third largest party, did not want to remain on the sidelines and wanted to work with other parties. “Stop excluding the PVV.”
The Party for the Animals attacked Rutte and the VVD alleging they had used the asylum issue for political gain by exaggerating the problems it presented the country to bring things to a head.
“You have fictitiously created a problem on the backs of vulnerable people. You have deliberately pushed it to a head and that is ugly politics,” said party leader Esther Ouwehand.
This was denied by VVD party chairman Sophie Hermans who said VVD had committed itself to the reception of “real refugees.”
Rutte’s career in politics drew praise elsewhere, in particular for his leadership on the shooting down by Russian separatist forces of Malaysian Airlines’ MH17 over Ukraine in 2014.
“Mark Rutte was the biggest supporter of relatives of the MH17 that we could have wished for. He has been very involved from the very beginning, also in solving problems or bottlenecks where things did not go well,” said Piet Ploeg, chairman of Stichting Vliegramp MH17.