Dutch Face Elections As Rutte Seeks Majority for Measures
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Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte offered to quit, a move that would trigger early elections, as he sought to win parliamentary support for additional budget cuts needed to steer the Netherlands clear of the debt crisis.
Stocks, bonds and the euro dropped today as Rutte’s Cabinet convened in the Hague to try to overcome a budget impasse after talks with opposition leader Geert Wilders’s Freedom Party broke up at the weekend without a deal on cuts of at least 9.5 billion euros ($12.5 billion). Rutte then met with Queen Beatrix to tender the Cabinet’s resignation.