Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte resigned from the child compensation scandal, but said he would remain interim leader until a new cabinet is formed.
Rutte, who is 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 will step down in the autumn when Germany holds federal elections and her party this weekend elects its new leader, who may run to succeed her as chancellor.
Unlike Merkel, Rutte has not ruled out returning to power and has said her government will remain until a replacement cabinet is formed, so that the Netherlands is not left without a leader amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The formation of the Dutch cabinet has been slow in recent years, with the current four-party alliance requiring a record 225 days of negotiations following the 2017 elections.
At the heart of the scandal is the revelation that thousands of families have been wrongly accused of child benefit fraud since 2012. The families, mostly of immigrant origin, were ordered to return thousands of euros without any recourse. .