July 16, 2023 . Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte will not run for a fifth term in office and will leave politics following the elections in November, he said on Monday.
Rutte, the leader of the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy, or VVD, on Friday handed in the resignation of his fourth cabinet after failing to reach an agreement on stricter migration policies.
“In recent days, there’s been a lot of speculation about what motivated me. The only answer is the Netherlands,” he said in a speech in parliament before a debate on the collapse of the government.
Following Interior Minister Hanke Bruins Slot’s recommendation, an election is to take place in the Netherlands on November 22, Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s caretaker government announced Friday, a week after it resigned over disagreement on asylum policy.
The Farmer–Citizen Movement, under Caroline van der Plas, led Politico polling for the election as of July 1.
Rutte, leader of the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy and in his fourth consecutive term as Prime Minister, handed his resignation to King Willem-Alexander on July 8. He later announced his departure from politics altogether, saying it was a personal decision not influenced by the government’s collapse.
The VVD, with the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) support, proposed limiting, according to the Agence France-Presse, the influx of children of refugees in the Netherlands, and keeping refugee families separated for a minimum of two years; the Christian Union and Democrats 66 parties expressed opposition.
In February, the CDA proposed a system distinguishing temporary refugees, who would be granted asylum for one to three years — extendable if they fled a war and it continued for over three years, and permanent refugees.
Applications for asylum in the Netherlands increased by a third in 2022, surpassing 46,000.
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