Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte has resigned over a child allowance scandal, but said he would remain as interim leader until a new cabinet was formed.
Mr. Rutte, who is now nearing the end of his third term as prime minister, is a center-right politician and one of the longest-serving leaders in Europe, along with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Me. Merkel will retire in the autumn when Germany holds federal elections and her party wants to elect its new leader at the weekend, who could possibly act to succeed her as chancellor.
In contrast to Mrs. Merkel, the mr. Rutte did not rule out coming back to power and said his government would remain in place until a replacement cabinet is formed so that the Netherlands is not left without a leader amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Dutch cabinet formation has been sluggish over the past few years, and the current four-party alliance needs a record 225 days of negotiations after the 2017 election.
At the heart of the scandal is the revelation that thousands of families have been wrongly accused of child benefit fraud since 2012. Families, mostly with immigrant backgrounds, were ordered to repay thousands of euros, without any form of appeal.