THE HAGUE, Jan 10 (Reuters) – Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s fourth government was sworn in on Monday, a record 299 days after general elections and a year after the previous government resigned amid the health crisis.
It took long negotiations to conclude a government agreement last month after the March 17 election.
The coalition, made up of the four parties in power since 2017, has promised large spending on sustainable energy, housing and education, but for the time being it must deal with the resurgence of COVID-19 cases due to the Omicron variant.
The government will have to decide by Friday whether to maintain or relax the confinement, which has provoked several demonstrations, sometimes enamelled with violence, since its establishment on December 19.
After a year of political crisis, polls show that Dutch people’s confidence in their prime minister and the political class as a whole has fallen to an all-time low. (Bart Meijer report, French version Laetitia Volga, edited by Blandine Hénault)
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