Outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte said on Friday that elections to choose a new Dutch government will be held on September 12.

Caretaker Prime Minister Mark Rutte addresses parliament in The Hague, Netherlands, Tuesday April 24, 2012. Photo: Peter Dejong / AP

Rutte announced in The Hague at his weekly press conference after a cabinet meeting. Rutte and his ministers quit on Monday after his minority government and its far-right ally failed to agree on a plan to slice the budget to steer the eurozone’s fifth-largest economy back below the EU deficit ceiling of three percent from last year’s 4.7 percent. On Tuesday, Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands ordered the Parliament dissolved to call for an early election.