Dutch government falls as deaths mount in COVID-19 pandemic
On January 15, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte announced his government’s resignation ahead of national elections scheduled for March 17. He will head a caretaker government until then.
Rutte claimed that his resignation aimed to redress the wrong committed in a 2013-2019 welfare scandal, where the Dutch state falsely accused 26,000 parents of dual-national families of welfare fraud, improperly forcing them to pay back tens of thousands of euros in child benefit. “With this decision, the government wants to do justice to all those parents who have been unprecedentedly wronged,” Rutte said. “The rule of law should protect citizens from the all-powerful government, and that has gone horribly wrong here.”
Lilianne Ploumen reacts to Lodewijk Asscher’s resignation. Photo: Sem van de Wal ANP
The decision by Lodewijk Asscher to renounce the Labour leadership because of his role in the childcare benefit scandal has been met with dismay by party members and support from others, broadcaster NOS reports.
MP Lilianne Ploumen, currently deputy leader of the parliamentary party, said she had only heard about Asscher’s resignation on Thursday morning. ‘It is definitely a blow. I am shocked,’ she commented. Ploumen refused to be drawn about who might succeed Asscher as leader.
Her name, that of EU commissioner Frans Timmermans and Rotterdam mayor Achmed Aboutaleb are among those in circulation.