The Prime Minister of the Netherlands, Mark Rutte, announced in parliament on Monday morning that he would not run for a new term and would step down from politics following elections in November. Rutte, who is 56, is the leader of the conservative People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), and the country’s prime minister since 2010, for four consecutive terms.
The elections were announced on Saturday 8 July, after the government fell due to the lack of agreement between the coalition parties on the proposed plan to limit asylum claims. The government was born a year and a half ago, but for some time there had been disagreements between the four parties that make it up: in addition to VVD, it includes the centrist and pro-European D66, the conservative liberals of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) and the party conservative Christian Union (CU). However, after Saturday Rutte remained prime minister, leading a transitional government in view of the elections.