Dutch PM Mark Rutte, a European fixture, says he will quit politics

AMSTERDAM - Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, the longest-serving leader of the Netherlands, shocked the nation on Monday by saying he would quit, a political shake-up that was unthinkable just days ago.

Last Friday, Mr Rutte announced the sudden collapse of his fourth governing coalition after

failing to reach agreement on stricter immigration policies

, but said he was interested in keeping the top job “because I have the energy and the ideas”.

Several parties over the weekend ruled out joining a power-sharing coalition with him, and Mr Rutte told Parliament on Monday that he had decided not to seek re-election when the country goes to the polls in November.

“In recent days, there’s been a lot of speculation about what motivated me. The only answer is the Netherlands,” he said in a speech in Parliament. “When a new Cabinet takes office after the elections, I will leave politics.”

Mr Rutte will oversee a caretaker government until a new coalition is formed, a process which will take months in the fractured Dutch political landscape.

The interim administration cannot decide on new policies, leaving a range of important issues, from climate goals and agriculture to immigration, in limbo well into 2024.

Mounting criticism

Last August, Mr Rutte, 56, became the longest-serving prime minister in Dutch history, a testament to his political stamina and survival skills honed over a 13-year tenure.

He has led the conservative People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) for 17 years, through countless crises and a toughening of immigration policy, spurred by a rise of right-wing parties demanding the country’s borders be closed.

“He has a lot of energy. I don’t know how he does it,” Mr Geert Wilders, a long-term political rival and leader of the anti-Islam Freedom Party, once said of Mr Rutte. “So I compliment him for being a very hard worker.”

Mr Rutte has been nicknamed “Teflon Mark” for his ability to survive political scrapes, but in recent years, he has faced mounting criticism over his handling of farm policy and climate change, as well as a social welfare scandal and a crisis over the Groningen gas field.

He attributed the latest political storm to “a clash of values” in the four-party coalition government over immigration. Smaller coalition parties insisted children and parents seeking asylum in the Netherlands have a right to be reunited, while his VVD sought restrictions.

‘Best job in the world’

An increasing number of voters had said they were tired of Mr Rutte’s leadership, but there was no obvious alternative.

The main political rival to the VVD in an autumn election will be a farmers’ protest party that shook up the political landscape and took a majority of seats in the Dutch Senate following provincial polling in March.

Despite his ups and downs at home, Mr Rutte has been a tireless presence on Europe’s political stage. Among current European national leaders, only Hungary’s Viktor Orban has served longer.

Mr Rutte, who is not married, lives in the same house in The Hague that he bought with student friends decades ago and can be seen walking or cycling to Cabinet meetings or state visits munching an apple.

Throughout his political career, he continued to teach a social studies class at a high school in The Hague and had said he would like to take it up full-time after leaving politics.

Although often tipped for high-level international positions at the European Union or Nato, Mr Rutte had called being prime minister “the best job in the world” and never hinted wanting to leave Dutch politics.

“I feel like I’m getting to the halfway point,” he quipped to journalists in 2022. REUTERS