Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte's cabinet has become the longest serving in the Netherlands since World War II, a milestone reached in large part because of dragged-out talks to form a viable coalition government. The so-called Rutte II government has been in place for 1,749 days, surpassing on Sunday the record held by prime minister Ruud Lubbers from 1989 to 1994, according to media reports.
Rutte called the achievement a "good performance" while acknowledging in comments to the ANP news agency that it resulted "mainly from the slow formation" of a new government since inconclusive elections in March. Drawn-out coalition talks are par for the course in the Netherlands, with the longest lasting 208 days, in 1977.
The current government was formed in late 2012 after just 54 days of negotiations, with the country anxious for political stability at a time of economic turbulence. But as of Sunday the talks aimed at forming a Rutte III coalition have lasted 158 days.
A first attempt to include the leftwing ecology-based GroenLinks party in a four-way coalition broke down in May amid differences over immigration, leading the first person tasked with trying to form a government to step down.