AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte will not run for a fifth term in office and will leave politics following the elections in November, he said on Monday.
Rutte on Friday handed in the resignation of his fourth cabinet after failing to reach agreement on stricter immigration policies.
“In recent days there’s been a lot of speculation about what motivated me. The only answer is the Netherlands,” Rutte said in a speech in parliament before a debate on the collapse of the government.
“Yesterday morning I made the decision that I will not again be available as leader of the VVD. Once the new cabinet is formed after the elections, I will leave politics.”
Rutte’s decision will mark the end of his run as the longest serving government leader in Dutch history. He took over as Prime Minister in October, 2010.
Rutte, 56, will stay on as leader of a caretaker government until a new administration is formed after the next elections, a process which in the fractured Dutch political landscape usually takes months.
(Reporting by Bart Meijer, Toby Sterling and Charlotte Van Campenhout; Editing by Toby Chopra and Ed Osmond)
