THE HAGUE (ANP) - The Dutch newspapers sound quite unanimous in their analyzes and comments about the parliamentary debate. Outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte has been badly damaged after he narrowly survived a vote of no confidence from the opposition.
NRC:
Outgoing prime minister and VVD leader Mark Rutte showed himself to be the survival artist he often is. Rutte remained upright for a long time against a unanimously furious Chamber on Thursday. The House of Representatives had asked for answers, but did not receive them. The House would have liked to have confidence, but it did not receive it. And the Chamber would have liked to hear how the formation should proceed, but only created more confusion. Outgoing prime minister and party leader Mark Rutte (VVD) was still standing at the end of the debate, in the middle of the night. A motion of no confidence, submitted by PVV leader Geert Wilders, did not get a majority, because the fallen coalition of Rutte III (VVD, CDA, D66 and ChristenUnie) did not support it. Rutte said: "I will continue as Prime Minister."
But Rutte came out of the debate badly damaged. A motion of censure, submitted by the intended coalition partners D66 and CDA, did get a large majority. It states that Rutte has caused "serious damage" to the formation process and to the relationship between government and citizens.
Faithfulness:
The prime minister has been badly damaged by his role behind the scenes in the cabinet formation. Rutte appears to have spoken to the scouts about CDA MP Pieter Omtzigt, while he denied this on two occasions. The information that the House had been looking for for a week turned out to be in the prime minister's head, but had been lost. Rutte remembered the conversation incorrectly afterwards, he reported to the Chamber on Thursday. That confession immediately led to the question of whether he can become prime minister for the fourth time. Even if Rutte stays on, his role will no longer be the same. His authority has been compromised. Even if he keeps the benefit of the doubt, it is a political fact that few political groups in the House of Representatives really believe in his amnesia.
Volkskrant:
Mark Rutte is severely damaged by the debate about the Omtzigt affair. His dream coalition partners D66 and CDA filed a motion of censure against him, the opposition also supported the even heavier motion of no confidence. Rutte hardly seems to be able to form a new cabinet. "You have de facto beheaded Mark Rutte," concluded PVV leader Geert Wilders after D66 leader Sigrid Kaag filed her motion of censure against the man who seemed on his way to becoming the longest-serving prime minister in history. Kaag did not even contradict it. Rutte had to draw his own conclusions, was the message of the D66 party leader. CDA leader Wopke Hoekstra agreed. "Rutte has to make his own assessment."
Even the VVD leader has to see that a goat path to a Rutte-IV cabinet does not emerge so quickly. After the motion of no confidence, the left-wing opposition can hardly do anything with him.
TO:
Rutte-4 is very, very far away, can be read in the analysis of the AD. After the election, it seemed a foregone conclusion. Mark Rutte could prepare for his fourth term as prime minister. Everything looks different since Thursday night. It is suddenly uncertain whether that fourth Rutte cabinet will come about. The mutual distrust is so great that some party leaders at the Binnenhof think that Rutte's remaining as VVD leader is an obstacle to the formation of a new cabinet. And that is quite something, just over two weeks after the ballot box in which Rutte received almost two million votes and made his party by far the largest.
Integrity and Rutte have been wrangling in the eyes of many non-VVD members for some time. In the ten years that Rutte has been prime minister, he survived all criticism, but a hint of cunning behavior lingered. Amnesia, broken promises, withheld information, documents or receipts only found after long insistence from the Chamber or journalists. And now this again!
Telegraph:
If the creation of a cabinet provides a glimpse of its success, the next team does not bode well for ministers. While the election campaign was still relatively tame and the result with the VVD as the winner, clear, the exploration for the succession of Rutte III has become a mess according to the House. Politics stands for ape, CDA leader Wopke Hoekstra pointed out. Nobody in the conference room wanted to deny that anymore.
There is no question that there will be a new cabinet. But a bumpy road awaits the supposed protagonists. The VVD has been hit by a hint of ruthless mendacity around the party. The striking forgetfulness of its leader, who as a historian-prime minister usually prides himself on his good memory, has taken on structural forms. Rutte's best-before date, however, is now also becoming a topic of discussion in the party.
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