As voters in the Netherlands go to the polls on 22 November, here's everything you need to know about the election.
The longest-serving prime minister in the Netherlands steps down after 13 years in office after elections this month. Mark Rutte will leave his office in The Hague and will replace it with a classroom. He made the announcement in July after his government collapsed, plunging the Netherlands into an unexpected election campaign. The country goes to the polls on 22 November in a snap general election called two years early. Here's everything you need to know about Dutch politics, parties, personalities and the issues at stake when the European country goes to the polls:
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Nicknamed 'Teflon Mark' for his ability to keep government crises at bay, or 'Mr Normal' for his simple lifestyle, Rutte's resignation marks the end of an era for the country.
After three terms in office, immigration was the turning point that brought down his fourth coalition government. For months, the prime minister had been working on a package of measures to reduce the flow of new immigrants to the Netherlands. But infighting within the coalition government over limiting family reunification and creating a two-tier asylum system led him to throw in the towel.
Two of the four parties in the ruling coalition - the Democrats 66 (D66) and the Christian Union (CU) - opposed the bill, while the other two, the VVD and the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA), supported it. The idea was to reduce the number of family members allowed to join asylum seekers in the country and to make families wait two years before they could be reunited.
source: euronews
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