Dutch gov't collapses over migration dispute

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Friday night announced the break-up of his government after a failure to reach an agreement on migration policy between the four coalition parties, reported Xinhua.

At a press conference in The Hague following a meeting with his ministers, Rutte said: "This decision is difficult for all of us and for me personally too. It is regrettable that it did not work out."

The four parties all believe that measures need to be taken on migration issues, but they still have disputes about the strictness of the approach.

The most thorny issue is family reunification. Rutte's People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) and the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) insisted that a restriction on family reunification is a way to reduce the migration flow, but the Democrats 66 (D66) and Christian Union (CU) drew a red line on this.

Rutte has announced his resignation, which means the current government broke up and new elections have to be planned, probably in November, according to local media reports.

The fourth government of Rutte was inaugurated on Jan. 10 last year.