Dutch media reported on Friday, January 15, 2021 the resignation of Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s government due to a massive scandal in which thousands of families were falsely accused of fraud. According to media reports, the liberal leader is due to announce the news during a press conference at 2:15 p.m. (1:15 p.m. GMT), which comes just two months before the legislative elections and in the midst of a health crisis.
Thousands of families have been wrongly accused of fraudulent family allowances, before being forced to reimburse them, which has plunged some of them into serious financial problems. Many of them have also been subjected to ethnic profiling on the basis of their dual nationality.
The four ruling center and right-wing parties had met earlier to discuss a possible resignation, while Mark Rutte, prime minister since 2010 and one of the longest-serving EU leaders, had previously announced he would run for a fourth term.
A bad case for Mark Rutte
A parliamentary investigation report published in December 2020 established that officials ended the allowances of thousands of families wrongly accused of fraud between 2013 and 2019, before forcing them to retroactively return those received over several years, i.e. in some cases tens of thousands of euros. Senior political leaders, including several ministers in office, are accused of having preferred to close their eyes to dysfunctions of which they were aware.
The case comes two months before the legislative elections, scheduled for March 17, and in the midst of a health crisis, the Netherlands experiencing the most severe restrictions imposed since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. Mark Rutte had previously opposed the resignation of his coalition, saying the country needs a decision-making government to fight the novel coronavirus. He added on Tuesday that he hoped that his government, resigning or not, would continue to be able to take decisions on the management of the health crisis until the elections. The Dutch political system allows for the existence of a “resigning government”, which can deal with current affairs pending the formation of a new government or the holding of elections.
“Ethnic profiling”
The other parties in the ruling coalition were reluctant to call for the resignation of the government, believing that it should take responsibility for this scandal which has affected around 26,000 parents, according to Dutch media estimates. If the government did not resign, he could also have faced a vote of no confidence in parliament next week. The pressure on the government intensified on Thursday with the resignation of the leader of the opposition Dutch Labor Party (PvdA), Lodewijk Asscher, Minister of Social Affairs from 2012 to 2017, under the previous government coalition of Mark Rutte.
Victims lawyer Vasco Groeneveld filed a complaint on Tuesday against three ministers in office and two former ministers, including Lodewijk Asscher. Several concerned parents posted a video on Monday calling on the government to resign. It was further revealed that tax officials had “ethnically profiled” some 11,000 people on the basis of their dual nationality, including some of those affected by the family allowance case.
In December, the Dutch government announced that it wanted to pay at least 30,000 euros to each parent concerned over the next four months, but that was not enough to deflate the scandal. Mark Rutte has led three coalition governments since 2010. In 2017, his party came first ahead of far-right MP Geert Wilders. According to recent polls, the liberal-conservative party (VVD) of Mark Rutte could be the first party again after the legislative elections, public opinion still largely supporting its management of the pandemic.
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