# UPDATE 5-Dutch government quits over 'colossal stain' of tax subsidy scandal **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [January 16, 2021, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/update-5-dutch-government-quits-over-colossal-stain-of-tax-subsidy-scandal/930666 "2021-01-16T11:58:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Manwich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e480ec/32.png) [@Manwich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manwich)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2021, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/update-5-dutch-government-quits-over-colossal-stain-of-tax-subsidy-scandal/930666/1 "2021-01-16T11:58:42Z")
> **[Dutch government quits over 'colossal stain' of tax subsidy scandal](https://www.reuters.com/world/dutch-government-resigns-over-childcare-subsidies-scandal-2021-01-15/)** > > Prime Minister Mark Rutte's government resigned on Friday, accepting responsibility for wrongful accusations of fraud by the tax authorities that drove thousands of families to financial ruin, often on the basis of ethnicity. Holy shit some accountability. Well soon, they are still caretakers. Classic Dutch, their Prime Minister “then rode his bike to King Willem-Alexander’s 17th century baroque Huis Ten Bosch palace in The Hague to discuss his resignation” Very similar shit went down in Australia but it caused very little political fallout because the conservative government did it to the poor and our Labor party is weak as piss. Look up robodebt, 2000 deaths, fuck me. ---
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2021, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/update-5-dutch-government-quits-over-colossal-stain-of-tax-subsidy-scandal/930666/2 "2021-01-16T12:17:54Z")
The Robo-debt scandal was so big it was visible from space. It needed a global catastrophuk of Covid-19 proportions to distract people. Hopefully some rage has been maintained so that the Libs can be called to account at the next election. ---
**Author:** ![Manwich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e480ec/32.png) [@Manwich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manwich)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2021, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/update-5-dutch-government-quits-over-colossal-stain-of-tax-subsidy-scandal/930666/3 "2021-01-16T12:31:22Z")
Unfortunately, our state controlled media (ABC and SBS) had been successfully cowed and refused to allow spokespeople to address the issue. And forget about the commercial media talking about it. Fucking robodebt absolutely fucked the lives of hundreds of thousand of the most vulnerable Australians. Misery for people who have already had a hard go. Why? So we can perpetuate the idea of meritocracy and pretend the jobless are the enemy. Scum behaviour. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2021, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/update-5-dutch-government-quits-over-colossal-stain-of-tax-subsidy-scandal/930666/4 "2021-01-16T12:58:51Z")
How will this affect the upcoming election? > [@](#): > > Even though public support for the government’s COVID-19 measures has dipped sharply in recent weeks, Rutte’s People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) is still riding high in public opinion polls ahead of the March election. > > Rutte, in power since 2010, has been on course for a fourth term, with his party projected to take just under 30% of the vote, more than twice that seen going to the second placed PVV, the anti-Islam party of Geert Wilders. ---
**Author:** ![Art\_Rock](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/art_rock/32/525_2.png) [@Art\_Rock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Art_Rock)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2021, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/update-5-dutch-government-quits-over-colossal-stain-of-tax-subsidy-scandal/930666/5 "2021-01-16T13:09:51Z")
Not much effect is expected. Elections were already scheduled for March, this scandal has been frequently in the news in the past year. The Netherlands is always governed by a coalition of 2(rare) to 5(current) parties, ranging from somewhat right to somewhat left of the centre. Far right and far left parties do gather a considerable amount of seats in parliament, but they usually refuse to govern or are ruled out by the more central and moderately right and left parties. This particular incident (no matter how tragic) will not drive lots of voters to the far left or far right. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2021, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/update-5-dutch-government-quits-over-colossal-stain-of-tax-subsidy-scandal/930666/6 "2021-01-16T13:28:07Z")
Could we have a little more background here? What was the essence of these scandals? And what’s the 5 about? ---
**Author:** ![Zakalwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zakalwe/32/270_2.png) [@Zakalwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zakalwe)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2021, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/update-5-dutch-government-quits-over-colossal-stain-of-tax-subsidy-scandal/930666/7 "2021-01-16T13:38:22Z")
I’m not the OP, but the UPDATE 5 appears to be the way the Reuters site tags articles on a particular topic. Any time the initial article is updated to add/correct information, the UPDATE # is incremented. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2021, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/update-5-dutch-government-quits-over-colossal-stain-of-tax-subsidy-scandal/930666/8 "2021-01-16T13:52:51Z")
"A parliamentary inquiry found last month that officials at the tax service had wrongly accused families of fraud over childcare subsidies, causing an “unprecedented injustice”. Around 10,000 families had been forced to repay tens of thousands of euros each, in some cases leading to unemployment, bankruptcies and divorces. Many of the families were targeted based on their ethnic origin or dual nationalities, the tax office said last year." ---
**Author:** ![DeadTreasSecretaries](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/deadtreassecretaries/32/4817_2.png) [@DeadTreasSecretaries](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeadTreasSecretaries)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2021, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/update-5-dutch-government-quits-over-colossal-stain-of-tax-subsidy-scandal/930666/9 "2021-01-16T14:06:53Z")
> **[Americans Confused By System Of Government In Which Leader Would Resign After...](https://www.theonion.com/americans-confused-by-system-of-government-in-which-lea-1819578984)** > > WASHINGTON—In the wake of Prime Minister David Cameron’s announcement that he would leave office following the United Kingdom’s vote to exit the European Union, tens of millions of Americans expressed their confusion to reporters Friday about a... ---
**Author:** ![Bootb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19b73/32.png) [@Bootb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bootb)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2021, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/update-5-dutch-government-quits-over-colossal-stain-of-tax-subsidy-scandal/930666/10 "2021-01-16T15:22:53Z")
You laugh, but there are vast structural differences between the American and British political systems. It is largely if not entirely due to those structural differences that British politicians feel led to resign. ---
**Author:** ![Manwich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e480ec/32.png) [@Manwich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manwich)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2021, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/update-5-dutch-government-quits-over-colossal-stain-of-tax-subsidy-scandal/930666/11 "2021-01-16T20:23:15Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Could we have a little more background here? What was the essence of these scandals? And what’s the 5 about? I’m not Dutch and never even thought to wear blackface at Chridtmas, I just saw the article and noticed its relevance to a similar, probably worse Australaian scandal. So I did some reading and posted this to see what others thought. ---
**Author:** ![DeadTreasSecretaries](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/deadtreassecretaries/32/4817_2.png) [@DeadTreasSecretaries](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeadTreasSecretaries)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2021, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/update-5-dutch-government-quits-over-colossal-stain-of-tax-subsidy-scandal/930666/12 "2021-01-16T20:24:53Z")
Oh I agree In the last four years I’ve really become convinced that parliamentary systems are far superior to divided government, partly for this reason. ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Wiggler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/red_wiggler/32/13190_2.png) [@Red\_Wiggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Wiggler)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2021, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/update-5-dutch-government-quits-over-colossal-stain-of-tax-subsidy-scandal/930666/13 "2021-01-17T00:32:47Z")
Much harder to run from what you done in a parliamentary system. Accountability is baked in right along with the tremendous power. ---
**Author:** ![Manwich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e480ec/32.png) [@Manwich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manwich)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2021, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/update-5-dutch-government-quits-over-colossal-stain-of-tax-subsidy-scandal/930666/14 "2021-01-17T11:01:07Z")
Well, in the Dutch case there was accountability because the opposition party also admitted they fucked up too. In Australia, the Labor party sowed the seeds of robodebt so they don’t want to remind anyone too much about what happened. And Labor are gearing up to lose the next election by not doing anything to distinguish themselves from the conservatives (we call them Liberals because we’re fuckwits) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Librarian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_librarian/32/402_2.png) [@The\_Librarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Librarian)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2021, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/update-5-dutch-government-quits-over-colossal-stain-of-tax-subsidy-scandal/930666/15 "2021-01-17T13:58:32Z")
In the political system of the Netherlands there is always the possibility of the government “falling” — losing support of parliament. In fact most cabinets do not reach the end of their term.