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Mark Rutte on Tuesday became the longest-serving Dutch prime minister, and the leader known to some as “Teflon Mark” because the scandals are not near his center shows no signs of slowing down despite unrest in his country and the decline of his party. popularity in the polls.
Rutte has been in power for 4,311 days, nearly thirteen years, since he became prime minister in October 2010.
“These are the most beautiful paintings in the world, an honor. I must say that there are a lot of puzzles on my desk now, but those things happen,” Rutte said late last month as the Dutch politician entered her summer vacation.
At the forefront of those conundrums is the government’s purpose of reducing nitrogen pollutants that has sparked protests from farmers who have caused traffic chaos in recent weeks by blocking roads and highways with tractors, dumping waste by adding manure and asbestos to roads, and burning bales of hay.
Rutte, 55, leader of the center-right People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) and leader of a four-party ruling coalition, said he was not aiming to celebrate the appointment of the longest-serving prime minister, whom he called a “foote. ” and he said he would be in the country that day. While his party is in decline in recent polls, it remains the top standout in the fragmented Dutch political landscape.
This fragmentation helped Rutte force and is part of the reasons it has remained in place for so long: he now leads his fourth coalition government, said political scientist André Krouwel of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
He said Rutte had won a struggle of forces within his own party at a time when the classical forces of Dutch politics, the Christian Democrats and the Social Democrats, were in decline and still were doing so.
“Basically, he was prime minister by default because of the failure of others and not because of his own achievements, just because the others collapsed more than the VVD,” Krouwel said in a telephone interview.
This helped Rutte retain the highest position in Dutch politics despite devastating crises during the twelve years he was in power, namely a scandal involving thousands of young families mired in debt and depression after being falsely accused of fraud with the circle of relatives’ allowances. Rutte’s third coalition resigned because of the scandal. But it bounced back to lead the VVD to victory in the general election a few weeks later, in March 2021.
In some quarters, he is too smart and has been accused in parliament of misleading lawmakers, but at the same time, he is considered an effective leader who can make things happen, Krouwel said.
“These two elementsArray. . . and I think they’re true, they make him, I think, a tough player to beat,” he said.
It has now eclipsed the previous longevity record of 4,310 days in force set by Ruud Lubbers, a Christian Democrat who led the Netherlands from November 4, 1982 to August 22, 1994. Rutte is the european Union’s longest-serving elected leader. of 27 nations, only the Hungarian Viktor Orban.
Rutte has co-opted parties across the political spectrum into his 4 coalitions that the diversity of a minority coalition subsidized through the backing of anti-Islamic lawmaker Geert Wilders, who took office on October 14, 2010 in his current quadripartite administration.
As one of the longest-serving leaders in the EU, Rutte stands out as a behind-the-scenes mediator at leaders’ summits in Brussels, but he has also had more tension with leaders in southern and eastern Europe who see him as the figurehead of an organization of “frugal” nations that insist on strict fiscal rules.
Rutte has faced crises during his tenure, from the 2014 downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine that killed the other 298 people on board, many of them Dutch nationals, to the COVID-19 pandemic.
And it is not yet in a position to prevent it.
“For me, the decisive thing is: Do I have the ideas, the energy?Do I have water in my mouth on Friday morning when the cabinet assembly starts to start solving problems?As long as I have that, I like to keep going,” he said.
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