Mark Rutte, the Prime Minister of the Netherlands, has resigned and said that he is leaving politics altogether. He has been in office since 2010.
This follows a fall out over immigration reform. The Prime Minster had been hoping to limit the flow of immigration and asylum seekers but was unable to do so due to party divisions.
The Prime Minister is also unpopular due to the attacks on Dutch farmers. The Netherlands has successfully received permission from the European Commission to seize livestock farms for “environmental reasons,” forcing the farmers to promise not to re-open those farms anywhere else in Europe. Farmers have been protesting this for weeks now and protests are only heating up.
Prime Minister Rutte faced a vote of no confidence on Monday over the immigration issue, which would have forced him out of office anyway. The resignation may have been his only face-saving option.
