Prime Minister of Dutch stated that he wants to quit politics after state tumbles

July 11, 2023: On Monday, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte announced that he wouldn’t operate for a fifth term in office after resigning from his cabinet on Friday, completing the country’s fragile four-party coalition administration.

Fifty-six-year-old Rutte, who became the country’s longest-serving prime minister in history in August last year, said he plans to leave Dutch politics following elections later in the year.

The leader of the conservative People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) had served as prime minister since 2010.

“Recently, there’s been a lot of speculation about what motivated me. The only answer is the Netherlands,” Rutte said in a speech in parliament. On Monday, his comments came ahead of a scheduled no-confidence vote in The Hague.

“Yesterday morning, I decided that I will not again be available as leader of the VVD. I will leave politics once the new cabinet is formed after the elections.”

Rutte’s statement comes shortly after he said that his four-party coalition government had collapsed over “irreconcilable” differences on immigration policy.

The prime minister and his government will remain in post until a new ruling government is chosen. Opposition lawmakers have called for an immediate election. A fragmented political landscape in the Netherlands suggests it can take months to form a new country after an election.

The four-party coalition state comprises Rutte’s VVD, the center-right Christian Democratic Appeal party, and two centrist parties: the Democrats 66 and the Christian Union.