Dutch PM Mark Rutte confirms he will seek 4th term in office

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte wants ar term in office.

In an interview published Saturday in Dutch daily De Telegraaf, Rutte confirmed that he will le his People's Party for Freedom and Democracy into next national election on March 17.

“I would like to continue as prime minister again,” he said simply on party’s website.

conservative party, kwn by its Dutch acronym VVD, currently les national polls and observers credit Rutte's stey leership of country over past dece, as well as through coronavirus pandemic, as key reason for its popularity.

“Toger we are currently facing an ermous ordeal with virus. We are 17 million people trying to get over mountain, with a map that only partially shows us way,” he wrote. “I want to take le through this ordeal.”

Rutte, 53, first took office in 2010 and has led three governing coalitions. If his party, as polls suggest, wins most seats in March election, he will be first in line to attempt to form a new coalition and begin his fourth term. He currently les a four-party center-right coalition.

His popularity rose in early days of coronavirus pandemic as he was perceived to have mand to balance public health demands with need to mitigate crippling ecomic fallout of outbreak.