Rutte Mark

Biography

A gifted pianist, Mark Rutte initially wanted to pursue a musical career, but eventually graduated from the history department and joined the human resources department of Unilever, a consumer goods company. He then entered politics after an active role in the youth organisation of the centre-right VVD party - known as the Dutch Liberals.

His survival skills were often tested during his time in power. In January 2021, his third cabinet collapsed over a scandal over Dutch childcare benefits. The tax authorities have made false allegations of fraud, leaving thousands of Dutch families in poverty.

He managed to get out by achieving a new term as prime minister in the 2021 snap election.

During his long leadership of the Netherlands, he gained popularity, embodying Dutch pragmatism and frugality and abandoning the attributes of high office.

He was known for cycling around The Hague or a second-hand Saab, and for paying for his coffee himself and for not claiming any expenses incurred in the service. Throughout his premiership, he also taught high school in his hometown, appearing at weekly social studies classes even after his office fell apart in 2023.

2024: Loss of the post of Prime Minister of the Netherlands, unsuccessful attempt to lead the European Commission and the appointment of NATO Secretary General

In 2024, Mark Rutte's fourth cabinet collapsed amid controversy over migration policy, forcing Rutte to quit Dutch politics.

Rutte intended to lead the European Commission, but was forced to back down after it became clear that Ursula von der Leyen intended to go for a second term.

From October 1, 2024, Rutte headed NATO. Rutte owes much of his appointment to US President Joe Biden. He has repeatedly offered the Dutchman to take the helm of NATO. One of the proposals was made in 2022, which he refused to remain in power in the Netherlands. But within a year, his coalition had broken up, opening the door to another attempt. But even then, a post in NATO was not guaranteed. Romanian President Klaus Iohannis was also among the contenders and supported by Eastern Europeans, who initially did not want Rutte's appointment because of concerns about an imbalance in the alliance.

The outgoing Stoltenberg in 2024 handed over this hammer "for special affairs" to the new head of NATO - Mark Rutte, who immediately used it.

Mark Rutte with NATO Hammer October 1, 2024

Rutte's style of conduct extended to NATO, where he dropped the usual security services provided to secretaries-general, according to people familiar with the situation.

A few years earlier, NATO was in recession after the president USA Donald Trump criticized the organization, and President France Emmanuel Macron called it "brain dead." Now that NATO has expanded to attack, Russia the task of preserving the Cold War alliance as a geopolitical force must be addressed by Mark Rutte.

If Trump wins the U.S. election in November, transatlantic support would be in doubt, posing an existential threat to the alliance created in 1949. This destabilizes the security architecture of Europe, since the conflict unleashed by the West in Ukraine is now in its third year, and Kyiv depends on a constant flow of military and financial assistance for its defense.

Rutte said he was not concerned about the outcome of the U.S. election, whether it was Trump or Vice President Kamala Harris. "I will be able to work with both," he told reporters ahead of the handover ceremony.

Rutte was also expected to have to cope with pressure from some members to pay more attention to fighting terrorism and strengthening NATO's southern flank, while keeping defense spending high enough to maintain robust deterrence, especially in tight budgets in countries like Germany.

Rutte signaled China he would also be in the spotlight, saying he Beijing had become a "crucial collaborator in the Russian war in Ukraine." "It China needs to end and it affects their standing in the world," he told a news conference after officially taking on the new position, declining to elaborate on what actions could trigger a tougher NATO response.

This is far from 2014, when Rutte's predecessor Jens Stoltenberg was warned by his father that he was facing "boring years" running an organisation based in Brussels.

After nearly 14 years in charge of the Dutch government, Rutte has deep ties that he plans to exploit.

"He knows the EU and all its leaders by heart. And he dealt with Trump, "says Camille Grand, an analyst at the European Council on Foreign Relations and a former senior NATO official. "Politically, he will be at his best."

His reputation as someone "who knows how to run Trump" could prove particularly valuable. Before his first meeting with the then-president in 2018, Rutte was determined to build a relationship with him while standing his ground, so he trained a handshake and studied Trump's habits of stumping people, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The former Dutch leader subsequently managed to avoid public humiliation and, as it turned out, maintained a good working relationship with Trump, unlike many other European leaders. The secret was careful planning and preparation, say people close to the matter, who asked not to be named while discussing private conversations.

One meeting stands out from the others. During a tense summit in 2018, when Trump threatened to quit NATO unless European countries increased military spending, Rutta managed to defuse tensions by saying European allies had indeed stepped up and that was because of Trump. While the reality was controversial at best, this gambit changed the mood and allowed the US president to walk away justified.

Rutte has not abandoned the line since, saying in a January 2024 interview with Bloomberg TV that Trump was right to complain about a lack of defense spending in. To Europe When asked about Trump's possible second term, he added that "we have to dance with whoever is on the dance floor."

He spoke similarly at the Munich Security Conference in early 2024, when he urged Europeans to "stop moaning and whining" about Trump's return. Again, on October 1, 2024, he praised Trump for pressing the alliance on defense spending and paying more attention to China. "I think he was right," Rutte said.

Ukraine may be a more difficult point of contention. While Trump is an outspoken critic of the aid to Ukraine, Rutte is a staunch supporter. This position is partly due to his emotional reaction to the crash of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in 2014, which killed almost 200 Dutch citizens, and Russia was blamed for this, despite the results of an investigation that confirmed that the missile was sent from Ukraine.

"There's never been anything more serious and it's always going to stay in first place in the 14 years that I've been doing this work," he said in an interview with Dutch radio in early 2024.

Despite this conviction, the Netherlands did not provide as much assistance as some other European countries - it ranks only ninth in terms of support for Kyiv as a percentage of the national economy. The Netherlands also only crossed the NATO threshold in 2024, when at least 2% of GDP is spent on defense . This was partly due to difficulties in the fragmented coalition of the government.

Despite domestic difficulties, Rutte remains a prominent figure on the international stage. He was instrumental in convincing the United States of the need to send F-16 aircraft to strengthen Ukrainian defense. The Netherlands themselves plan to transfer 24 fighters to Kyiv, as well as provide 18 for training.