2023-07-10 21:45:00
Outgoing Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte on July 10, 2023 in The Hague (Remko de Waal / ANP/AFP)
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte announced on Monday that he would leave politics following the early elections scheduled for this fall, following almost 13 years at the head of the Netherlands, a record.
Nicknamed “Teflon” for having survived the various scandals that shook his four governments, the leader of the liberal right (VVD) declared that he would step down following the early legislative elections caused by the collapse of his last coalition, due to disputes internal around the tightening of the asylum policy.
Mr. Rutte, 56, who is used to cycling to his official meetings, will have led the Netherlands for nearly thirteen years, during which he took care of his image as “Mr. world”.
He was also a European stalwart who infuriated some southern countries with his tough line on public finances, but won sympathy from other leaders for his support for Ukraine.
“More fit”
Mark Rutte assured Friday that he still had “the energy” to stand as the head of his party’s list in the legislative elections in order to aim for a fifth term, but first to have to “think regarding it”.
On Monday, he created a surprise by announcing his retirement from political life.
“Yesterday morning, I took the decision that I am no longer fit to be once more head of the list for the VVD. (…) After the elections, I will leave politics”, declared Mr. Rutte in front of deputies stunned.
His government collapsed on Friday following he proposed divisive measures over the reception of asylum seekers, despite knowing that two of the four parties in his coalition government would refuse them.
Mr Rutte ‘blew up his own government in the hope – in my opinion, and I’m not the only one – that early elections would go well for his liberal party VVD and also for himself,’ Hans said. Boutellier, professor at the Free University of Amsterdam (VU).
Mr. Rutte will act as interim until the elections, scheduled for mid-November at the earliest, according to the Dutch electoral council.
Who to succeed him?
Tributes have come from both the Netherlands and abroad, as the country wonders regarding his possible successor.
Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said on Twitter: “Thank you for everything, Mark. It’s not just the Netherlands who will miss you.”
Outgoing Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte on July 10, 2023 in The Hague (Remko de Waal / ANP/AFP)
“Your choices were not ours, but you made them with conviction,” Geert Wilders, leader of the far-right PVV party, told parliament.
Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra, who said he was also stepping down as leader of the Christian Democrat party CDA, one of the parties in the fallen coalition, said he had “incredible respect” for Mr. Rutte.
While no clear successor has yet emerged within the VVD, the election campaign for the post-Rutte era promises to be one of the most heated for several decades, following the recent emergence of a populist pro-farmer formation, the BBB. This party came first in the regional elections in March in all the regional councils, as well as in the Senate, whose composition depends on these local elections.
Turkish-born Justice Minister Dilan Yesilgoz and the leader of the VVD parliamentary group Sophie Hermans, a former assistant to Mr. Rutte, are among the favorites to succeed Mr. Rutte as head of his party’s list in the legislative elections, said the RTL television channel.
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