Prime Minister

Former Prime Minister Wim Kok (PvdA) passed away after a long illness, his family revealed on Saturday. Over the weekend King Willem-Alexander and various politicians responded to his death. Kok was a well respected man to whom the Netherlands owes a great deal of gratitude, was the general theme of their reactions.

On Wednesday an Islamic party in Pakistan, TLP, called on the government to expel the Dutch ambassador to the country, in reaction to PVV leader Geert Wilders' plans to hold a cartoon competition about the Islam religious figure Mohammed, NU.nl reports.

Queen Maxima and Prime Minister Mark Rutte will head the Dutch delegation to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The theme for this 48th edition of the WEF, taking place from Tuesday to Thursday, is 'Creating a Shared Future in a Fractured World'.

Other cabinet members taking part in the forum are Minister Halbe Zijlstra of Foreign Affairs, Minister Sigrid Kaag of Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation, Minister Wopke Hoekstra of Finance, and Minister Bruno Bruins of Medical Care and Sport.

Deputy Prime Minister Lodewijk Asscher called on Turkey to retract its accusations of Nazism and fascism against the Netherlands. If the country does not do so, the relationship between the Netherlands and Turkey will remain difficult, Asscher said, according to RTL Nieuws. 

Asscher added that the Dutch government will not take any measures against the Ankara government, even if they refuse to retract the statements. According to him, it is important that calm returns. But "a different form of communication must come from Turkey", he said.

Out of fear of being eavesdropped on, Deputy Prime Minister Lodewijk Asscher did not dare to call Prime Minister Mark Rutte from his cellphone after flight MH17 was shot down in July 2014, Asscher said on television program Jinek. 

The Deputy Prime Minister was on holiday in France at the time. Instead of calling the Prime Minister from his mobile phone, he knocked on the door of a neighbor and asked if he could use her landline. "I had to talk to the Prime Minster in The Hague. That you don't do with your mobile. These discussioins might be of interest to Russians or others."

A massive 60 percent of Dutch voters think it is time for a new Prime Minister, according to the weekly poll by Maurice de Hond. Only 31 percent think Mark Rutte should be Prime Minister again following the elections in March next year.

A large delegation of the Dutch cabinet will be attending a gathering at the Belgian embassy in The Hague on Wednesday afternoon to commemorate the bombings in Brussels on Tuesday. Prime Minister Mark Rutte will give a speech.

The latest poll released by Piel.nl has revealed that the support for the PVV Party is at an all-time high. The anti-Islam party currently has double the support that the Prime Minister’s VVD has. Currently the PVV is sitting with 38 seats, while the VVD only has 19 seats, 22 less than in 2012.

The Dutch population currently has more confidence in PVV leader Geert Wilders than in Prime Minister Mark Rutte. In Maurice de Hond's weekly poll, the respondents gave Wilders a confidence score of 4.2. The Prime Minister only scored a 3.9.

Prime Minister Mark Rutte calls the riots in Schilderswijk, The Hague this week terrible. They should stop immediately. The Prime Minister finds it inconceivable that people are attacking the police and vandalizing property.

There are 152 directors of care facilities for the elderly who have a higher salary than the Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, reports labor union FNV. The highest-paid care center executive is Wander Blaauw from Zorgpartners Friesland, whose annual income last year was almost 400,000 euros, more than double the 178,000 euros earned by Rutte.