Dutch PM Mark Rutte has announced he will quit politics after his government collapsed on Friday over disagreement with coalition parties over how many asylum seekers their country should take in each year.
“Once the new cabinet takes over after the elections, I will leave politics,” Rutte told Parliament members.
“This is a personal decision and is independent of developments over the last few weeks,” he added.
The country has been dealing with overcrowded migration centres, and figuring out a solution among Rutte’s coalition parties proved too challenging.
Rutte, who’s been Prime Minister of the Netherlands since 2011, is said to have wanted stricter regulations on migration than some of the other parties in his coalition. Currently, about 43,000 refugees per year are accepted into the Netherlands.
However, the coalition parties wouldn’t agree.
Other more conservative parties, such as Geert Wilders’ Party for Freedom (PPV), have strongly opposed the amount of migrants the Netherlands currently takes in and want to curb migrations numbers even more than Rutte.
Last year, Rutte took a page out of fellow WEF comrade Justin Trudeau’s book, calling the nationwide farmer protests against his climate policies “small” and “unacceptable.”
The protests came after Rutte’s government implemented a buyback scheme to purchase thousands of farms.
Over 40,000 Dutch farmers took to the streets last year to express their grievances, leading protests outside government buildings and official residences.
Farmers have even dumped manure at the foot of the government and have even clashed with police at times.
The demonstrations were a visible expression of the farmers’ frustration with the government’s policies, seen by the entire world.
On the heels of the government forcing farmers to sell their land, Dutch farmers are reportedly committing suicide at disproportionately high rates.
