Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte has dropped a child allowance scandal, but said he will remain as interim leader until a new cabinet is formed.
Mr Rutte, now nearing the end of his third term as prime minister, is a center-right politician and one of Europe’s longest-serving leaders, alongside German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Ms Merkel is due to resign in the autumn, when Germany holds federal elections, and her party this weekend will choose her new leader, who could run for successor as chancellor.
Unlike Mrs Merkel, Mr Rutte did not rule out a return to power and said his government would remain until a replacement cabinet was formed so that the Netherlands would not remain without a leader in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
The formation of the Dutch cabinet has been slow in recent years, with the current alliance with four parties requiring a record 225 days of negotiations after the 2017 elections.
At the heart of the scandal is the revelation that thousands of families have been wrongfully accused of child benefit fraud since 2012. Families, most of them of immigrant origin, have been ordered to reimburse thousands of euros without any appeal.