Prime Minister Mark Rutte and his entire cabinet resigned on Friday to take political responsibility for a scandal surrounding investigations into child benefit payments, in which thousands of parents were falsely labeled as fraudsters. In a national television speech, Rutte said that he had informed King Willem-Alexander of his decision and promised that his government would continue to compensate affected parents and fight the corona virus as soon as possible.
“We agree that if the whole system has failed, we must all take our responsibility, and that has led to the conclusion that I have just offered the king the resignation of the entire cabinet,” said Rutte.
Photo by REMKO DE WAAL / ANP / AFP via Getty Images
The move was seen as largely symbolic; Rutte’s government will remain in function of janitor until a new coalition is formed after the elections in the Netherlands on 17 March.
The resignation ends a decade in office for Rutte, though his party is expected to win the elections, leaving him first in line to begin talks to form the next government. If he succeeds in forming a new coalition, Rutte will most likely become prime minister again.
The Netherlands is the third European country to be thrown into political uncertainty in the midst of the crisis this week corona crisis. In Estonia, the government resigned over a corruption scandal, while Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte’s coalition government threatens to collapse after a small partner party withdraws its support.
Rutte said earlier this week that in the fight against the coronavirus, his government would be able to continue to make tough policy decisions, even if it were in concierge mode. The Netherlands will be in a difficult situation until at least February 9, and the government is considering introducing a night-time curfew over fears of new, more contagious variants of the virus.
“I say to the Netherlands: our fight against the corona virus continues,” said Rutte.
On Thursday, the leader of the Dutch opposition party PvdA resigned because he was Minister of Social Affairs in a government coalition led by Rutte when the tax authorities of the country pursued a strict policy to detect fraud with child welfare.
Lodewijk Asscher’s decision put Rutte under further pressure in the run-up to Friday’s cabinet meeting. Ministers were to decide on their response to a damning report released last month entitled “Unprecedented Injustice”, which stated that tax administration policies violated “fundamental principles of the rule of law”. The report also criticized the government for providing parliament with information about the scandal.
Many falsely accused parents fell into debt when tax officials demanded repayment of their payments. The government has apologized in the past for the tax authorities’ approach and set aside 500 million euros ($ 607 million) in March to compensate more than 20,000 parents.
One of those parents waited near parliament while the cabinet met and said she wanted to resign.
“It’s important to me because it’s the government that recognizes, ‘We’ve made a mistake and we’re taking our responsibility,’ because it’s quite the thing that happened to us,” Janet Ramesar told The Associated Press.
Rutte plans to lead his conservative People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy to the March elections, and polls show it will win the most seats. That would put Rutte, who has been at the head of three different coalitions for ten years, first in line to form the next ruling coalition.
Deputy Prime Minister Kajsa Ollongren, who serves as Home Secretary, said entering Friday’s meeting that “ it is very important to be accountable and also to show accountability in a political sense, and we are going to talk about that in the Council of Ministers. today.”