Off the wire
• World Cyber Arena opens in NW China city  • Spotlight: UN chief wishes to see speedy selection of his successor  • Indian stocks experience relief rally  • China Exclusive: China set for leading role in Industry 4.0: Klaus Schwab  • Blogger fined 150,000 for defaming Singapore PM  • Sri Lanka to seek China's assistance for construction of Central Expressway  • Direct flights link Wuhan, Rome  • IMF revises Kenya's GDP growth to 5.6 pct due to low spending  • Roundup: New Argentine gov't scraps foreign currency controls  • People's Daily: Disregarding facts and jurisprudence, arbitration is neither fair nor just  
You are here: 　 Home

Dutch government survives motion of disapproval

Xinhua, December 17, 2015 Adjust font size:

The Dutch government survived a motion of disapproval by almost all opposition parties on Wednesday night in The Hague after a long and intense debate in Parliament.

The debate was about the government's actions surrounding the 15-year-old "Teeven deal." The deal between former Dutch chief prosecutor Fred Teeven and drug lord Cees H., in which the criminal obtained 4.7 million guilders and in return payed a fine of 750,000 guilders to the prosecutor, was slammed last week by the Oosting Committee, which had investigated the controversial settlement.

Prime Minister Mark Rutte had to defend himself for a comment he made on Friday on the report of the Oosting Committee. Rutte had suggested that the deal with the drug lord might have been better than assumed.

"I've made the situation even worse," Rutte declared on Wednesday during the debate. "I know nothing more. It was an incredible stupidity to say that."

In addition, Rutte was accused of having given wrong and incomplete information to Parliament. For this reason former Minister of Security and Justice Ivo Opstelten and State Secretary of Justice Teeven stepped down in March this year. But Rutte emphasized he had given all information he had.

The motion of disapproval received the support of 65 lawmakers while 77, including all members of the ruling VVD (Liberals) and PvdA (Labor) voted against the motion.

A motion of disapproval is regarded as a serious signal to the government, but not as serious as a motion of no confidence, which is considered even tougher and could lead to the fall of the government. The motion was undoubtedly a severe blow to the Rutte government, which has led the Netherlands since November 2012.

In response to the vote result, Rutte vowed to work hard to regain trust. "In 13 years of my political career this was my toughest debate," he said. Endi