Dutch government collapses after economic talks fail

[jaxx]

Dutch government collapses after economic talks fail
Monday 23 April 2012

The Dutch government, one of the biggest critics of European countries failing to rein in their budgets, has resigned after disagreeing on a plan to bring its own deficit in line with EU rules.

Queen Beatrix accepted the resignation of prime minister Mark Rutte and his cabinet after a meeting in which he told her talks on a new austerity package had failed over the weekend.

Mr Rutte will address parliament on Tuesday to discuss interim measures to keep public finances in order and schedule new elections. No date for elections was immediately announced, but opposition MPs called for a vote as soon as possible.

<..> Although the Netherlands has relatively low levels of national debt, its economy is in recession and it is expected to post a deficit of 4.6% in 2012.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/...70130.html

No wonder the stock market is down.

[janedrake]

Another feather in the cap for the "pro-austerity" crowd! /sarcasm

[SeattleGirl]

And I'm sure the wingnut crowd will find a way to blame Obama for this.

[sandnsea]

Oh for pete's sake. What kind of reactionary political game is this?

Here's the Netherland's economy. We should be so lucky.

"The Dutch economy is in recession. In 2012, GDP is expected to decline by ½ percent, while the unemployment level increases by 90.000 persons, to 5¼ percent of the labour force. The budget deficit goes down to 4.1% in 2012, which is less than previously expected due to the worsened economic prospects."

http://www.cpb.nl/en/pressrelease/321118...one-crisis