Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
by Andrey Zvorykin
[REGNUM] On June 26, 2024, it became known that on October 2 of this year, the new, fourteenth Secretary General of NATO will be the former head of the government of the Netherlands Mark Rutte, who recently resigned as prime minister of the kingdom.
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There has been speculation for quite some time about who will replace the Norwegian Jens Stoltenberg, who was Secretary General for almost ten years, in the combat post of head of the “defensive” (as he positions himself) alliance.
The London Telegraph two years ago confidently wrote that ex-Prime Minister and catalyst of the Ukrainian conflict Boris Johnson would sit in the post of Secretary General. The Canadian CBC predicted the “secretary general” for the head of the Canadian Ministry of Finance, the ethnic Ukrainian Chrystia Freeland.
Up until a certain point, there were two more ladies on the shortlist: former British Prime Minister Theresa May and her current Estonian counterpart Kaja Kallas. In general, the transformation of the alliance into a "women's kingdom" was the most common forecast, and it was the Baltic women who were mentioned most often: former Lithuanian Prime Minister Dalia Grybauskaite and former Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid were mentioned. In addition, it was said that the Balkans could be encouraged by inviting former Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic as Secretary General.
But the four main players in the alliance – the USA, Britain, France and Germany – came out in support of the man from Old Europe – Mark Rutte.
“I know that I am leaving NATO in good hands,” Jens Stoltenberg commented on the appointment on the social network X (formerly Twitter). Why would a Norwegian hand over his post to a Dutchman?
AN OLD BACHELOR WITH A TEFLON REPUTATION
Mark Rutte was born on February 14, 1967 in The Hague, the birthplace of the artist Vermeer, the group Shocking Blue, and one of the de facto capitals of the kingdom: the parliament and the cabinet of ministers sit in The Hague, and the royal residence is also located here. But what is more important is that the headquarters of globalist and Atlanticist structures, about one hundred and fifty in number, are concentrated here. In this “city of peace and justice” (the official title of The Hague), the tribunal for the former Yugoslavia sat, Slobodan Milosevic died here, and the headquarters of the International Criminal Court are also here.
Rutte, who had a successful career that earned him the nickname "Teflon Mark," was an early graduate of the globalist school. The future prime minister was born into a family of one of the country's richest citizens, the director of a large trading company that made money in the colony of the Netherlands East Indies, now Indonesia.
The family professed rather strict religious views of the Calvinist persuasion, Mark was the seventh child. The future politician received a history education, graduating in 1992 from Leiden University with a corresponding specialization. After completing his studies, he worked at Unilever, a company engaged in the production of food and household chemicals (and at the same time demonstratively caring for the environment), as a personnel manager. Since 2008, he has taught courses in sociology at the Jan de Witt College in his native The Hague.
At the same time, Mark Rutte began his political career. While still a student, the future prime minister headed the youth organization of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (NPSD). From 1993 to 1997, he was a member of the party's Executive Council.
The NPSD was created in 1948 on the basis of the conservative-liberal Freedom Party and several leaders of the Labor Party who left the latter because, in their opinion, it was too socialist. For most of the time since its founding (53 out of 75 years, from 1948 to 2023), the NPSD has been part of the ruling coalition, which was achieved due to the “half-hearted” liberal-conservative ideological direction of the party, divided by this factor into two approximately equal wings. Mark Rutte considers himself to be on the liberal wing.
In 2002–2004 he served as Secretary of State (deputy minister participating in government meetings) of labor and social protection, and after, until 2006, the formation in the government of Jan Peter Balkenende, a leader of the Christian Democratic Appeal party, the NPSD was a partner in the ruling coalition. At the same time, since 2003, Rutte occupied the seat of a deputy in the lower house of parliament.
In 2006, after the resignation of Josias van Aertsen, the previous chairman of the NPSD, Rutte nominated himself for this post, his main opponent was Rita Verdonk, a figure in the conservative wing of the party. During the voting, Mark won, gaining 52% of the votes against 46% for Verdonk. The following year, 2007, Rita Verdonk was expelled from the ranks of the NPSD.
The reason was that Verdonk accused her party and parliamentary colleague, Somali migrant and feminist Ayaan Hirsi Ali, of either not having received Dutch citizenship or having received it with violations. Ali's documents were corrected, the conservative Verdonk was ostracized, and "Teflon Mark", who did not interfere in the scandal, came out on top.
Let us add that Rutte’s personal reputation also seems to be unblemished – the unmarried and childless politician has nevertheless not been suspected of anything reprehensible, unlike, for example, the married family man Donald Trump.
COVID ALMOST RUINED CAREER
In 2010, Rutte led the party in the parliamentary elections and was declared the winner of the televised debates. In his election program, the liberal Rutte played with nationalist and left-wing populist agendas: he promised to tighten immigration laws, raise the retirement age and reduce benefits for immigrants, and to use the freed-up money to combat the consequences of the 2008 economic crisis.
In the October 2010 elections, the PPSD won 20% of the vote and 31 seats (9 more than before) in the second chamber of parliament. On October 14, Queen Beatrix announced the appointment of Mark Rutte as Prime Minister of the country. A coalition government of the NPSD and the Christian Democratic Party was immediately formed.
Subsequently, Mark Rutte resigned from his post and returned to it three more times: in 2012, due to disagreements over the formation of the budget, the coalition split and Rutte had to reorganize the cabinet, this time together with the Labor Party. In 2017, regular parliamentary elections were held, as a result of which Rutte again headed the cabinet.
Finally, in 2021, his government resigned again as a result of mass protests caused by anti-coronavirus measures. However, in the early elections, the cabinet of the winning coalition was again headed by Mark Rutte. In all of the above cases, between elections, Rutte led the country as acting head of government.
On 7 July 2023, Rutte submitted his resignation to King Willem-Alexander due to disagreements with the Christian Union, a coalition party, on the migration issue: the Christian Union refused to support measures to restrict migration to the Netherlands put forward by the NPSD. On 14 August, Rutte also resigned as party chairman. However, following the November 2023 elections, a new government was not formed due to the impossibility of forming a coalition, so Mark Rutte is still acting Prime Minister.
A STAUNCH PRO-UKRAINIAN
The politician was first offered the post of NATO Secretary General back in January 2023, but then Mark Rutte refused, citing a desire to end his political career after the end of his next term. However, after his resignation in July of that year, Rutte returned to the proposal.
In February 2024, it became known that the Dutch politician was the main contender for the post of Secretary General, his candidacy was supported by 28 of the 32 member countries of the alliance. The current Secretary General of the organization, former Prime Minister of Norway Jens Stoltenberg, announced his resignation on October 2, 2024. In June 2024, all members of the alliance confirmed Rutte's candidacy.
It is worth mentioning that the Dutch politician, while serving as prime minister, ardently supported Ukraine back in 2014.
On March 1, 2022, almost immediately after the start of the SVO, Rutte signed a bilateral security agreement with Vladimir Zelensky, promising to provide financial assistance. Rutte also warmly supported the recent summit in Switzerland, saying that Russia has no right to participate in it until it “complies with international principles.”
"Mark is a true transatlanticist, a decisive leader and a consensus builder," Stoltenberg, his predecessor, said of Rutte.
Rutte himself said the following during his April visit to Lithuania:
"It is vital that NATO maintains deterrence, that we all understand that this border of the Baltics and other countries on the eastern flank with Belarus and Russia is our collective border... First of all, this means that we all spend at least 2 percent (of GDP) on defense. This also means strengthening the defense of the eastern flank."
So there is no need to expect any changes in the alliance’s policy towards Russia. It was in this spirit that Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov assessed the appointment:
“It is unlikely that this choice will change anything in the general line of NATO and the members of the Atlantic alliance.”
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