Prime minister Mark Rutte has confirmed that his mother died nearly two weeks ago at the age of 96.

Mieke Rutte-Dilling was living in a care home in The Hague where several residents were infected with coronavirus, but she had recently tested negative. She died on Wednesday, May 13 and was buried in a private ceremony last Friday, May 22.

In a statement, the prime minister said: ‘As well as the great sorrow and all the precious memories, there is a prevailing feeling for my family and me of gratitude that we had her with us for so long.’

Rutte had been unable to visit his mother since March 20, when all nursing homes were closed to the public to prevent vulnerable residents being infected. Individual visits under strict conditions are permitted again from May 25.

Mark Rutte is the youngest of six children. His father, Izaäk, lost his first wife, Petronella Dilling, while they were interned in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp in Batavia in July 1945. On his return to the Netherlands he married her younger sister Hermina (Mieke).