Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said Monday he would leave politics after the next election, following his government’s collapse last Friday, Ednews reports citing POLITICO.
“On Sunday I decided that I will not be available as a leader for the VVD in the upcoming elections,” Rutte told the Dutch parliament Monday.
After the Cabinet collapse late last week, Rutte said he still had the “energy and ideas” to continue, but this weekend he decided to put an end to his 17 years as leader of the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD). “I do this with mixed feelings, with emotions,” he said. “I love the team dearly. But it feels right.”
As one of Europe’s veteran leaders, Rutte has been linked with a number of top jobs outside the Netherlands, including at NATO and the EU. But Rutte said Monday that he’s not interested in an international top job.
Rutte will stay on as a caretaker prime minister until the elections in November. He said that “restraint is appropriate” for the outgoing administration when it comes to new policies and legislation. “But there are always urgent issues that require decisions now,” Rutte said, specifying the war in Ukraine, supporting victims of earthquakes in the city of Groningen and a government childcare benefits scandal.
The outgoing prime minister is currently teaching social studies once a week at a local school in The Hague. “Maybe I will do that for a few days,” Rutte added.
Rutte, who has been leading the Netherlands since 2010, is the longest-serving prime minister in the country’s history, having led four different coalitions.