THE HAGUE (NETHERLANDS) – The government of Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte had planned to collectively resign on Friday after years of mismanagement of childcare subsidies, lawmakers said.
Rutte was expected to inform King Willem-Alexander of the decision and hold a press conference during which he was likely to highlight how the government will manage the emergency response to the pandemic using the power vested, while in the caretaker status.
A new cabinet will be formed after parliamentary elections that had already been planned for March 17.
The inquiry report said around 10,000 families had been forced wrongfully to repay tens of thousands of euros of subsidies, which in some cases led to unemployment, bankruptcies and divorces. It described such mismanagement over a decade as an “unprecedented injustice”.
Many of the families were targeted on the basis of their ethnic origin or dual nationality, the tax office said last year.
Orlando Kadir, an attorney representing around 600 families, told Dutch radio that people had been targeted “as a result of ethnic profiling by bureaucrats who picked out their foreign-looking names.”
Even though public support for the government’s COVID-19 measures has dimmed sharply in recent weeks during a tough lockdown, Rutte’s People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) is still relying on public opinion polls.
His VVD is projected to take just under 30% of the vote in March 17 parliamentary elections, more than twice that is estimated to be going to the second-placed PVV, the anti-Islam party of Geert Wilders.