BBC Online :
Dutch caretaker Prime Minister Mark Rutte has narrowly survived a vote of no confidence over his conduct during talks to form a governing coalition.
But he remains under pressure after parliament adopted a formal motion of disapproval which noted he had not “spoken the truth” during the talks.
Mr Rutte is accused of lying about moves to sideline a troublesome MP. “Parliament has given me a serious message and I will try my very best to win back confidence,” Mr Rutte said.
The 54-year-old has been in office for more than a decade and has been dubbed “Teflon Mark” for his ability to survive scandals. However, almost the entire house of parliament backed the disapproval motion against him. His biggest coalition partner, Sigrid Kaag of the centre-left D66 party, said it was not clear to her that he would continue in charge of forming a new government.
Mr Rutte’s centre-right VVD party won the most seats in parliamentary elections just two weeks ago, and he was in talks to form a new coalition. The scandal centres around the MP Pieter Omtzigt, whose Christian Democratic Appeal party formed part of the previous coalition. Mr Omtzigt, a frequent critic of Mr Rutte, had helped expose a child welfare fraud scandal that led to the government resigning in January, ahead of elections in March.
