Prime Minister Mark Rutte of the Netherlands, one of Europe’s longest-serving leaders, and his cabinet resigned on Friday over a report highlighting his government’s failure of thousands of families against zealous tax inspectors.
Mr. Rutte handed over his resignation and that of his entire cabinet to King Willem-Alexander of Orange, reports the public broadcaster NOS.
‘Mistakes were made at all levels which led to great injustice for thousands of families. “Innocent people have been criminalized and their lives have been destroyed,” he said. Rutte said at a news conference. “This cabinet is taking full responsibility.” Mr. Rutte said the report that led to the downfall of the cabinet was ‘hard as nails’ but ‘fair’.
The report, the result of an investigation in which Mr. Rutte was also questioned, concluding that ‘unprecedented injustice’ had been inflicted on innocent families, some of whom were forced to repay large sums of childcare benefits immediately.
In many cases, an administrative error, such as a missing signature, was enough for the tax authorities to label parents as fraud and fine families up to tens of thousands of euros.
‘Fundamental principles of the rule of law have been violated’, the conclusion came, blowing both the government and parliament because they created ‘rock-hard laws’ with little room to consider individual cases fairly.
Mr. Rutte and his cabinet will continue to run the government in a watchdog, with general elections already scheduled for March. His center-right is currently leading the polls, and the other parties in his coalition, which have also been affected by the scandal, are not expected to call an earlier election because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Mr. Rutte is serving his third term as prime minister and has been leading the Netherlands since 2010. If his party gets the biggest votes again in the upcoming election, he could serve out a fourth term.
The chairman of the parliamentary committee that led the investigation, Chris van Dam, said the system created to detect benefit fraud is a “mass process without room for nuance.”
In a separate investigation, the Dutch data protection authority came to the conclusion that tax inspectors discriminated against citizens with dual citizenship.
The former vice-president of the Dutch Council of State, Herman Tjeenk Willink, added the accusations of systematic failure by calling on members of parliament to also take responsibility for voting in the strict laws.
“They have to look at themselves in the mirror,” he wrote in a comment in NRC Handelsblad, “and question their own role in this matter.”
Insiders told Mr. Rutte expects to easily pick up any criticism. “Yes, it is a shame that it happened under Rutte’s responsibility,” said Joost Vullings, a political commentator, “but if anyone knows how not to feel ashamed, then it is our prime minister. He will go all out to win the upcoming election. ”
Mr. Rutte said last month that the tax campaign outlined in the December report was “disgraceful”, and that the government had announced that nearly 10,000 families would each receive a compensation of 30,000 euros or about 36,500 dollars. Earlier this week, Mr. Rutte insisted that the government should not step down, as it could weaken the country’s response to the pandemic.
The Netherlands has been struggling with the coronavirus since March, and the inability to limit the spread of the disease has exposed systematic problems with over-regulation. Like many countries in Europe, the Netherlands is in the lock.
In a report in November, the government is seen as a leading global tax haven for large corporations, and the pursuit of individuals for relatively small sums has not gone unnoticed.
This duality and others in Dutch politics emphasize the disadvantages of the Dutch polder model, a system for reviewing every important decision by every institution, representative or even the person concerned. The outcome is always a compromise.
“This case is an example of a systematic error that has arisen from our coalition politics, where each party scores points for their own supporters,” said Sheila Sitalsing, a commentator for de Volkskrant, “but the final compromise becomes impossible to execute. for those who have to work with it daily. ”
Me. Sitalsing also said voters have been rewarding politicians for promising stricter rules for two decades. “This is what you get,” she said of the child benefit scandal.
Families who targeted the tax authorities on Tuesday put pressure on Mr. Rutte increases by appealing to his cabinet in an open letter published in the newspaper Trouw.
“What needs to be done is clear: everything needs to be repaired and cleaned up,” a group of families said. “We do not believe the current cabinet can do that.”
In a rather unique move in the Netherlands, the families this week filed criminal charges against five politicians, including Wopke Hoekstra, and Eric Wiebes, Minister of Economy, for their role in the case. If convicted, they could face up to six months in prison.
‘We have filed criminal charges because the victims I represent have been devastated, and some have become homeless as a result of these policies. These politicians were extremely negligent, “said Vasco Groeneveld, a lawyer representing 20 victims. ‘Every time I open their files, there is a shiver in my spine. These people were treated terribly. ”
Mr Wiebes, who was finance minister in a previous cabinet, will resign immediately and not remain in the caretaker government, NOS reported.
On Thursday, opposition leader Lodewijk Asscher, a former minister of social affairs, stepped down as leader of the Dutch Labor Party over his role. His resignation put pressure on Mr. Rutte raises to reconsider his position.