A scandal is the undoing of some of the “Thrifty Four”: The Dutch government of Mark Rutte has resigned.
The Hague
- A few weeks before the
parliamentary elections in March
, the
Dutch government
resigned.
The government of
Prime Minister Mark Rutte * is
drawing the conclusions from an affair over child benefits in which around 20,000 parents were wrongly portrayed as fraudsters and plunged into great financial hardship.
"The rule of law must protect its citizens from an all-powerful government, and that went terribly wrong here," said Rutte at a press conference on Friday.
Thousands of parents had been done "great injustice" for years
.
The Prime Minister said
that he presented
King Willem-Alexander
with the cabinet's declaration of resignation.
Netherlands: Rutte's government resigns - and could come back to power directly
The resignation is rated primarily as a symbolic step and is unlikely to have any impact on the outcome of the election on March 17th: In the polls, Rutte's
VVD is
way ahead.
Then he could also form a government again.
Rutte had previously assured that the government would remain fully capable of dealing with the Corona crisis.
In the fight against alleged fraud, the tax authorities
reclaimed
tens of thousands of euros in
childcare subsidies
from their parents between 2013 and 2019
.
As a result, thousands of families were in dire straits.
The right-wing liberal Rutte was head of government in all years.
Most recently, his
right-wing liberal VVD
ruled
together with two Christian parties and the
left-liberal D66
.
Rutte: Scandal about reclaimed Kita remedies - "Basic principles of the rule of law violated"
The affair had become acute after a parliamentary commission of inquiry had sharply condemned the actions of politicians, authorities and the judiciary in December.
“The basic principles of the rule of law have been violated.” The government has already promised compensation of 30,000 euros per family.
The pressure on the government had increased after the leader of the social democratic opposition party,
Lodewijk Asscher
, surprisingly announced his withdrawal from politics
on Thursday because of the same affair
.
Asscher was Minister of Social Affairs in the Netherlands until 2017.
More information soon.
(
dpa / fn
) *
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