Netherlands: Labor leader resigns after administrative scandal
Dutch Labor Party leader Lodewijk Asscher has decided to resign due to an administrative scandal.
AFP - KOEN VAN WEEL
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2 min
The leader of the opposition Dutch Labor Party (PvdA), Lodewijk Asscher, on Thursday (January 14th) announced that he would resign from his post, amid a vast scandal linked to the country's tax administration which has also put the government in turmoil .
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According to Dutch media, the center-right government of Prime Minister Mark Rutte is due to decide on Friday whether or not to resign due to the so-called family allowance case, in which several thousand families were wrongly accused of fraud between 2013 and 2019 at least.
Minister of Social Affairs and Employment and Deputy Prime Minister between 2012 and 2017, Labor Lodewijk Asscher estimated in a video on Facebook that “
recent discussions on his role in this affair
” no longer allowed him to ensure his position of head of the PvdA, which he had held since 2016. However, he said he was not aware "
that the tax authorities had launched an illegal hunt against thousands of families
".
Lodewijk Asscher has also indicated that he is stepping down as head of the PvdA list - which is not part of the current government coalition - in the next parliamentary elections, scheduled for March 17.
However, he will retain his place as a deputy in the lower house of parliament until the elections, which must determine the composition of the next government, but is no longer a candidate for a possible re-election, nor leader of the party's parliamentary group in the chamber.
According to the report of a parliamentary commission of inquiry published in December, officials put an end to the allowances of thousands of families wrongly accused of fraud, before forcing them to return retroactively those received over several years, in some cases case tens of thousands of euros.
Some of the parents concerned subsequently suffered serious financial problems.
(with AFP)
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