After the fall of his fourth cabinet, outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte can expect another vote of no confidence, widely supported by the opposition. If such a motion is passed, Rutte will also not be able to stay on as a caretaker. Support from one of the coalition parties is required for a majority, and it is highly questionable whether they will take that step.
PvdA and GroenLinks agree News hour to propose or support such a motion. Opposition leader Geert Wilders also wants Rutte to leave as prime minister immediately. “He must leave immediately,” Wilders tweeted.
As far as PvdA leader Attje Kuiken and GroenLinks leader Jesse Klaver are concerned, a business prime minister will replace them until elections have been held and a new cabinet is sworn in. The interim prime minister must keep his distance from politics. “There are really suitable candidates,” Klaver thinks. Kuiken wants to remove ‘the political sting’ and ‘the political sting is now called Mark Rutte’.
Read our reconstruction: When all ministers have been informed about the fall of the cabinet, Rutte cheerfully hands out pats on the back
Not just arranged
Experts do not think that a business prime minister can be appointed just like that. “That just doesn’t happen,” says historian Bert van den Braak on Twitter. The House of Representatives must then start a whole formation process, with a scout, an informateur and formation negotiations. Professor of Constitutional Law Wim Voermans agrees. An interim prime minister cannot simply do without a completely new interim cabinet, he says: “Parachuting a new MP into a caretaker cabinet is not possible in our system.”
Parties such as the SP, the Party for the Animals, BBB and smaller right-wing parties are also expected to support a motion. “Let this be the end of the Rutte era,” said PvdD leader Esther Ouwehand when the cabinet fell. SP leader Lilian Marijnissen wants a ‘Netherlands without Rutte’. In return for the Telegraph BBB leader Caroline van der Plas confirms her support for the motion.
The question is less certain whether D66, CDA or ChristenUnie will also support a motion. The latter party did come into a hard collision with Rutte this week. Irreconcilable differences between mainly ChristenUnie and VVD led to the fall of the cabinet. PvdA member Kuiken also points to the harsh words that the CDA in particular uttered about the position of the prime minister.
It is also unclear whether the SGP would vote for such a motion. The small conservative-Christian party is often loyal to the cabinet and does not easily support a vote of no confidence. Independent Member of Parliament Liane den Haan does not seem to support the motion of no confidence.
The House of Representatives will debate all day on Monday about the fall of the cabinet and the political crisis that has arisen.
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