Dutch PM survived no confidence

Special Desk

It was a narrow escape for Dutch caretaker Prime Minister Mark Rutte in the no confidence motion over his conduct.

Parliament has given me a serious message. I will try my best to win back confidence, Rutte expressed after the narrow escape. But he remains under pressure after parliament adopted a formal motion of disapproval which noted he had not “spoken the truth” during the talks.

Mr Rutte is accused of lying about moves to sideline a troublesome MP. The 54-year-old has been in office for more than a decade and has an ability to survive scandals. However, almost the entire house of parliament backed the disapproval motion against him.

His biggest coalition partner, Sigrid Kaag of the centre-left D66 party, said it was not clear to her that he would continue in charge of forming a new government. Rutte’s centre-right VVD party won the most seats in parliamentary elections just two weeks ago, and he was in talks to form a new coalition.

The scandal centres around the MP Pieter Omtzigt, whose Christian Democratic Appeal party formed part of the previous coalition.

Omtzigt, a frequent critic of Rutte, had helped expose a child welfare scandal that led to the government resigning in January, ahead of elections in March. His name appeared, alongside the words “position elsewhere”, in a document from the coalition talks that was photographed being carried by one of the chief negotiators as she rushed out of parliament having tested positive for Covid-19.

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This turbulent but experience will inevitably have an impact on the shape and direction of the new government, and there are no guarantees Mark Rutte will be leading it.