Breaking News: Dutch PM and Government To Resign
Photo: Reuters
Breaking News: Dutch PM and Government To Resign
Well, we’ve certainly been hearing that many of the leaders and governments we currently have will not necessarily be calling the shots for too much longer…
Dutch broadcaster RTL has just reported that the Dutch Prime Minister, Mark Rutte, will offer his and his cabinet’s resignation to the country’s monarch, Queen Beatrix, today.
Several papers around the world are reporting this as well, although exact details are thin as the story is just breaking – and the Dutch PM is yet to make an official announcement.
The Netherlands was thrust into political crisis over the weekend when seven weeks of austerity negotiations collapsed.
On Saturday, Rutte’s far-right junior coalition partner, Geert Wilders, walked out during negotiations over the country’s austerity budget.
This led to Rutte announcing: ” I have to inform you today that the three parties have failed to come to common answers. Therefore it stops,” Rutte told reporters in The Hague, adding that “elections are obvious.”
The final decision came today following an emergency morning cabinet meeting. Mark Rutte has only been the Dutch PM for 18 months.
It is especially ironic that this situation has arisen in the Netherlands, as the country has taken a very tough line with other struggling European countries such as Greece, Spain and Portugal since the European debt crisis began.
The Netherlands has also not been at all popular with the Bulgarian and Romanian governments, due to its stance on the non-aligned, south-western European countries being able to join the Eurozone’s borderless region, as designated by the Schengen Agreement.
If you wish to keep following this story I suggest you head to any of these sites:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/apr/23/eurozone-crisis-austerity-dutch-government
http://www.neurope.eu/article/dutch-pm-mark-rutte-resigns-breaking-news
