(Bloomberg) — Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte has come under fire from opposition politicians after it was revealed that he has been manually deleting text messages from his old mobile phone for years.
Rutte had to delete standard text messages on his old Nokia phone because it had very little storage capacity, Dutch newspaper Volkskrant reported on Wednesday. The prime minister was handed a new phone last week.
“I am not really a fan of smart phones,” Rutte told journalists in The Hague on Wednesday. “The disadvantage is the small screen.”
Green Party leader Jesse Klaver said Rutte’s use of his old phone may be a breach of the Dutch archiving laws. “This is the behavior of a prime minister who frantically tries to prevent all openness,” Klaver said, adding that he wants to ask Rutte’s mobile operator if the texts can be recovered.
Rutte acted in accordance with the guidelines, always securing “important messages,” he said, adding “it is possible that I have made a mistake in my judgment, but mistakes will always be made.”
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