PM Mark Rutte disbands cabinet after four parties in government coalition disagree over asylum seeker policy
Mark Rutte, the Dutch prime minister, has announced his resignation and that of his cabinet, citing irreconcilable differences within his four-party coalition about how to control immigration.
The decision on Friday by the Netherlands’ longest-serving premier means the country will face a general election later this year for the 150-seat lower house of parliament.
Continue reading...Success of Farmer-Citizen Movement in provincial vote is heavy blow to Mark Rutte’s four-party coalition
A new populist party surfing a wave of rural anger at government environmental policies has emerged as the big winner in Dutch provincial elections, dealing a heavy blow to the four-party coalition of the prime minister, Mark Rutte.
The success of the Farmer-Citizen Movement (BBB) in Wednesday’s vote, which will determine the makeup of the senate, casts doubt over the government’s ability to pass key legislation, including its plans to slash nitrogen emissions.
Continue reading...Mark Rutte says Dutch state ‘enabled, encouraged and profited from slavery’ for centuries
Mark Rutte has offered a formal apology on behalf of the Dutch state for the Netherlands’ historical role in the slave trade, saying slavery must be recognised in “the clearest terms” as a crime against humanity.
In a speech at the national archives in The Hague, the Dutch prime minister acknowledged the past “cannot be erased, only faced up to”. But for centuries, he said, the Dutch state had “enabled, encouraged and profited from slavery”.
Continue reading...From Europe to India and the US, the revelations have fuelled anger from across the spectrum, from the drivers to politicians
The release of the Uber files has prompted a frenzy of reaction around the world, piling pressure on senior politicians, fuelling calls for a crackdown on corporate lobbying and drawing outrage from groups including traditional taxi drivers.
The fuse was lit with the publication of revelations from a trove of more than 124,000 documents about Uber spanning from 2013 to 2017, leaked to the Guardian and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and international media.
Continue reading...Political parties reach new coalition agreement to form government 271 days after elections in March
Dutch political parties have reached a new coalition agreement, paving the way for the country’s caretaker prime minister, Mark Rutte, to form his fourth successive government a record 271 days after general elections in March.
The text of the accord between Rutte’s rightwing liberal VVD party, the progressive D66, Christian Democrat CDA and orthodox Christian party Christen Unie will be presented to the parties’ MPs on Tuesday and the whole parliament on Wednesday.
Continue reading...German chancellor offers olive branch to Warsaw at what may prove to be her last EU summit
Angela Merkel, who earlier this week reflected on her deep hurt over Brexit, has called for European Union countries to compromise over their competing visions of integration, at what was being billed in Brussels as a farewell summit for the German chancellor.
The attempt by Merkel, at her 107th and possibly final EU summit, to smooth over a dispute over Poland’s rejection of European court of justice rulings, in an olive branch to Warsaw, came as the Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, demanded tough action, and Hungary’s Viktor Orbán rallied to the defence of the Polish government.
Continue reading...‘Spotters’ were seen scoping out movements of Mark Rutte, who cycles to work in The Hague
The Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, who cycles to work in The Hague, has reportedly been given extra personal security in response to raised fears of a kidnapping or attack by organised crime.
The decision was made after “spotters” were seen scoping out Rutte’s movements, raising concerns about a possible move by one of the country’s drug gangs.
Continue reading...Mark Rutte has claimed an 'overwhelming' victory in national elections in the Netherlands, vowing to use a fourth term in office to rebuild the country after the coronavirus pandemic.
Exit polls on Wednesday night suggested the VVD party had won 35 of the Dutch parliament's 150 seats, two more than in the previous election, while the pro-European D66 party finished second with 27 seats, up eight and the party’s best ever result.
The far-right, anti-Islam Freedom party (PVV) of Geert Wilders, meanwhile, lost three seats compared with the 2017 election, finishing third, equal with the Christian Democrats (CDA)
Exit polls suggest the prime minister’s VVD party increased its share of seats as it won a national ballot seen as referendum on handling of Covid crisis
Mark Rutte has claimed an “overwhelming” victory in national elections in the Netherlands, vowing to use a fourth term in office to rebuild the country after the coronavirus pandemic.
Following a dull campaign fought during the pandemic and seen as a referendum on the government’s performance during the crisis, exit polls suggested the VVD had won 35 of the Dutch parliaments 150 seats, two more than in the previous election.
Continue reading...Analysis: PM is on course for fourth term in office. What is his secret and how is next coalition government likely to look?
The outgoing prime minister of the Netherlands, Mark Rutte, appears headed for a comprehensive victory and fourth successive term in office as the Dutch go to the polls in national elections on Monday, with voting spread over three days due to coronavirus restrictions.
Polls predict Rutte, who has headed three coalition governments of different political complexions since 2010, and his centre-right People’s party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) will win twice as many parliamentary seats as his nearest rival.
Continue reading...Mark Rutte enters final leg of race in dominant position despite ‘difficult phase’ of pandemic
Coronavirus has “completely taken the wind out of Dutch politics”, analysts say, predicting little change in the makeup of the coalition government after March elections as the prime minister, Mark Rutte, begins cautiously easing restrictions.
Despite three nights of rioting and 400 arrests after a night-time curfew, the first since the second world war, was imposed in January, and one of Europe’s slowest vaccine rollouts, Rutte enters the last two weeks of the election race in a dominant position.
Continue reading...PM Mark Rutte will stay on in caretaker capacity until general elections scheduled for 17 March
The Dutch government has resigned amid an escalating scandal over child benefits in which more than 20,000 families were wrongly accused of fraud by the tax authority.
The move came less than a month before parliament was due to break up ahead of general elections scheduled for 17 March. Prime minister Mark Rutte’s cabinet is to stay on in a caretaker capacity until a new coalition is formed after that vote.
Continue reading...Reference to Islam removed from EU governments’ declaration after disagreements
The rise of violent extremism in Europe has been linked to the failure of migrants to integrate, in a hard-debated joint declaration by EU governments on the recent terror attacks.
The statement by EU home affairs ministers was described by Horst Seehofer, Germany’s interior minister, as a “great sign of solidarity” when delivered on Friday but it had been heavily watered down from a controversial initial draft.
Continue reading...Euro rises as heads of state finally thrash out agreement on day five
EU leaders have reached a historic agreement on a €750bn coronavirus pandemic recovery fund and their long-term spending plans following days of acrimonious debate at the bloc’s longest summit in nearly two decades.
As the meeting reached its fifth day, the 27 exhausted heads of state and government finally gave their seal of approval to a plan for the EU to jointly borrow debt to be disbursed through grants on an unprecedented scale, in the face of an economic downturn not seen since the Great Depression.
Continue reading...Confrontation between ‘frugals’ and countries dubious over rule of law highlights acrimony at heart of union
Bad-tempered, late-running EU summits have hardly been unusual over the last decade of eurozone crisis and endless rows over migration. But the latest gathering of EU leaders, now in its fourth day with no end in sight, may be one of the most acrimonious yet.
With a €1.8tn (£1.6tn) financial plan on the table, the stakes are huge. Nobody expected talks to be easy, but expectations of a historic step towards EU fiscal union had risen since Angela Merkel abandoned Germany’s long-standing opposition to shared debt – reversing the position she took during the eurozone crisis.
Continue reading...Proposals on the size and terms of a recovery fund have led to splits between member states
Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron said they are willing to walk away from a summit of EU leaders, as they arrived at the third day of a long and acrimonious debate on the terms of a €750bn (£682bn) pandemic recovery fund.
With the EU split between northern and southern member states as well as eastern and western, France’s president and the German chancellor both indicated their patience was waning despite the need to respond to the economic recession facing the bloc.
Continue reading...Orbán accuses Netherlands’ Rutte of ‘communist’ tactics on tense third day of talks
Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, accused his Dutch counterpart of using the same methods as his country’s former communist leaders on Sunday, as EU leaders publicly clashed during tense and acrimonious negotiations over the terms of a proposed €1.8tn budget and recovery package for the bloc.
A third difficult day of a summit of the EU’s 27 heads of state and government – the first in person for five months – saw movement towards agreement as talks stretched deep into the night, but laid bare the deep splits between north and south, and east and west.
Continue reading...Claim of miserliness as second day sees negotiations split over size of fund and seven-year budget
European Union leaders were locked in intense negotiations on Saturday evening in an attempt to save a summit on the terms of a €750bn (£682bn) pandemic recovery fund from an acrimonious end as the debate over the bloc’s financial future became “heated”.
A second day of talks in Brussels saw Poland’s prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, publicly accuse the Netherlands, Austria, Denmark and Sweden of being “misers” while the Italian prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, claimed the Dutch were trying to rewrite the EU’s rules.
Continue reading...This week’s emergency summit will expose national divisions over budgets and the €750bn pandemic fund
Lockdown has proved challenging for most workplaces, and the European Council is no different. All-night sessions, corridor huddles and fine dining in the glass Europa building in Brussels have been replaced with hours staring at a gallery of fellow heads of state reading out prepared lines in front of a backdrop of EU and national flags – and the odd bit of pop art, as in the case of Luxembourg’s prime minister Xavier Bettel.
But this week, leaders will be forced to switch off their laptops and make their way across recently reopened borders to Brussels for their first face-to-face meeting in five months – and it is set to be a bruising encounter.
Continue reading...Dutch opposition to recovery spending has overtones of British disillusionment
Isolated in a recent European Union council of ministers, with attitudes described by European leaders past and present as “repugnant”.
It sounds like an old script of Britain in the EU. Yet it is the Netherlands that has found itself at the heart of the union’s most bitter row during the coronavirus pandemic. As EU leaders meet on Thursday for their fourth virtual crisis summit in seven weeks, the Dutch will once again be in the vanguard of opposition to plans for big spending on the recovery.
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