Dutch PM Mark Rutte announces he’s quitting politics

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said on July 10 he would leave politics after the next election, following his government’s collapse last Friday.

“On Sunday I decided that I will not be available as a leader for the VVD in the upcoming elections,” Rutte told the Dutch parliament, according to POLITICO.

After the Cabinet collapse late last week, Rutte said he still had the “energy and ideas” to continue, but this weekend he decided to put an end to his 17 years as leader of the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD). “I do this with mixed feelings, with emotions,” he said. “I love the team dearly. But it feels right.”

As one of Europe’s veteran leaders, Rutte has been linked with a number of top jobs outside the Netherlands, including at NATO and the EU. But Rutte said Monday that he’s not interested in an international top job.

Rutte will stay on as a caretaker prime minister until the elections in November. He said that “restraint is appropriate” for the outgoing administration when it comes to new policies and legislation. “But there are always urgent issues that require decisions now,” Rutte said, specifying the war in Ukraine, supporting victims of earthquakes in the city of Groningen and a government childcare benefits scandal.

The outgoing prime minister is currently teaching social studies once a week at a local school in The Hague. “Maybe I will do that for a few days,” Rutte added.

Rutte, who has been leading the Netherlands since 2010, is the longest-serving prime minister in the country’s history, having led four different coalitions.

His 13-year tenure in power won him the nickname “Teflon Mark,” for his ability to power through political crises — including a scandal over childcare subsidies which caused him to briefly resign in January 2021 only to return to power two months later after his VVD party finished first in the national elections.

His coalition government collapsed Friday evening after the ruling parties failed to agree on a new asylum policy.

Rutte’s VVD party wanted to limit family reunions for asylum seekers fleeing from war zones but ran into opposition from the ChristenUnie, the smallest member of the four-party coalition, which said it was unwilling to break up families.