Mark Rutte, the Dutchman who understands (almost) everyone and takes over as head of NATO

Pacts left and right

Born into a middle-class family in The Hague 57 years ago, Rutte did something very common in countries facing the North Atlantic: study a degree related to the humanities, History, and then dedicate himself to the business world. Finally, after a decade – the 90s – working as an executive in a multinational food industry company called Unilever, he made the leap into politics.

Framed in the Popular Party for Freedom and Democracy or VVD, a liberal-conservative formation, Rutte spent his early years in politics holding management-oriented positions. Between 2002 and 2006 he served, as part of a coalition led by the Christian Democrats of the CDA, as Secretary of State of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment and Secretary of State of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science.

It was then, in mid-2006, when Rutte decided to broaden his horizons, assume the leadership of the party – which he achieved by gaining very diverse support – and jump into parliamentarism. Dedicate yourself to what they call “the political arena.” His first years as leader of the party were eventful, having to deal with the skepticism generated among his people following the 2006 general elections, where he did not meet expectations, while at the same time he banished the most critical voices.

But in the 2010 general elections the VVD obtained a historic result and Rutte became the country’s first liberal president since 1918 thanks to the formal support of the Christian Democrats and the informal support of the radical right. Specifically from Geert Wilders and his Freedom Party.

That coalition, however, soon fell apart after Wilders’ withdrawal of support and in 2012 the Dutch people once again faced the polls. Against certain odds, Rutte not only revalidated the victory obtained two years earlier. He improved it.

Not so his old companions in adventure, who had bad results and were no longer useful to the liberal boss, who, having seen what he had seen, decided to pivot to the left and sign a coalition with the Labor Party. This lasted five years, until 2017, when new general elections were called and Rutte became prime minister again after shaking hands with his old allies, the Christian Democrats of the CDA, that of another similar party called the Christian Union and that of a small intellectual progressive party called Democrats 66 (in reference to its year of founding: 1966).

Rutte’s third coalition ended abruptly, that is, dissolved, in January 2021 after a political scandal related to social aid to disadvantaged households. A disaster that left more than 20,000 families in ruin. Although Rutte assumed responsibility for the mismanagement that had led to that scandal, he again presented himself as leader of the liberals in the general elections called two months later and, after winning 34 of the 150 seats, he revalidated the same coalition from his third term.

His fourth – and last – government lasted until the summer of 2023, when he somewhat surprisingly refused to reach an agreement on a relatively minor bureaucratic measure related to immigration and, predictably, the coalition imploded.

“Many people are convinced that he planned it,” the veteran European correspondent explains in a telephone conversation with EL ESPAÑOL. Caroline de Gruyterwho has been covering current affairs on the old continent for the readers of the Dutch newspaper for two decades NRC.

“We must keep in mind that Rutte is, above all, a manager; someone forged in that political culture of the nineties that did not need great visionaries,” he says. “In fact, if you ask him about his vision of things, he will tell you to talk to his eye doctor.”. Hence, he adds, many Dutch people think that being stubborn about a measure that mattered little to nothing to them was part of a roadmap that had the objective of ceding power without having to wait for the end of the electoral cycle.

This theory gained importance some time later, when it was learned that during a visit to the White House in January 2013, that is, a few months before, Rutte confessed to Joe Biden his intention to become the next secretary general of NATO. “You’ve asked me twice and both times I’ve said no,” they say he said. “If you ask me a third time, I’m going to say yes.”

Bicycles, apples and a New York biographer

Any Dutch political analyst will say the same thing: beneath a smiling, even carefree appearance, there is a person who hates surprises. Someone who lives, in short, at odds with uncertainty. And anyone who harbors doubts can analyze their private life.

Vacations, for example. Rutte has been visiting New York every year for three decades. He always travels with the same friend, they stay in the same hotel, they go to the same restaurants and, since he accepted the proposal, they always see the journalist. Robert A. Caroauthor of some of America’s most acclaimed political biographies. The one of Lyndon B. Johnson It is usually one of the most cited. Also the one he wrote about the famous urban planner Robert Mosesthe creator of contemporary New York, who won the Pulitzer in 1975.

“These are some of the best days of my life,” Caro, who is almost 90 years old, recently explained to New York Times when asked about the meetings with Rutte and his friend. “We feel like kids exploring the city”.

And in The Hague more of the same. Rutte has been living in the same house – “modest”, explains Caroline de Gruyter – surrounded by the same furniture since the 90s. A home that, according to a recent biography titled Het Raadsel Rutte (Rutte’s enigma), almost no one knows. The same book explains that Rutte never cooks, but he does not delegate the care of the place. He cleans it.

This behavior is what has left some of the most iconic images of Rutte during his time as prime minister. About riding a bicycle to work, something he had to stop doing after being threatened by a criminal organization known as Mocro Maffiaor go around nibbling apples. And the thing is that the guy, who doesn’t have a coffee machine at home, always visits the same coffee shop to have a Saturday snack and buys whatever is available in the same supermarket. Their weekly routine culminates with a Sunday meeting that is always held in the same place – a sports club –, always at the same time – ten in the morning – and always with the same handful of friends.

Those who know him say that such a social life perfectly complements his work addiction. “He never disconnects, he is a very dedicated politician”says Caroline de Gruyter. Therefore, during his years as prime minister, it was not strange to see him working overtime in the office. In those cases I used to order dinner. Always the same, of course.

A negotiator who understands everyone

When it became known that Rutte would be the next NATO secretary general, two questions arose. First: will it be able to foster cohesion among the members of the Atlantic Alliance in the face of the rise of isolationist positions? And the second: How will you address the main external challenges facing the organization?

Asked about the first question, Caroline de Gruyter is cautious – “it remains to be seen what she can achieve” – but also optimistic.

It is true – he says – that NATO members do not usually row in the same direction because they do not usually have the same interests. And it shows the difference in mentality between the countries of Eastern Europe, whose main fear is a Russian invasion, and those of the West of the continent, where the fear of a nuclear war predominates. Not to mention – he adds – the Americans, for whom the war in Ukraine is a secondary scenario compared to their great concern: China and the Pacific.

“But Rutte is a man who has been negotiating and agreeing for many years in an ecosystem, the Dutch, where no one agrees”he states. In that sense, what you are going to find is going to be very familiar. That on the one hand. And then, on the other, there is Rutte’s own mentality; “a politician who, like almost all Dutch people, has a transatlantic bent but who was forced to deal with Vladimir Putin when that Malaysia Airlines flight that was full of Dutch passengers was shot down while flying over the Donbas.”

That is to say: he understands Americans because of his own mentality, he understands Western European countries because he is a citizen of one of them, and he understands Eastern Europeans because he has had to deal with the Kremlin and the experience was not particularly pleasant. .

“He is a figure who is in the middle and who could, because of that and his negotiating skills, keep everyone in the same boat,” says the Dutch correspondent.

En Ucrania cunde el optimismo

El optimismo que parece predominar entre los partidarios de una OTAN más cohesionada, más eficiente, también encuentra su eco en Ucrania.

“Creo que Rutte mantendrá el apoyo hacia Ucrania demostrado como primer ministro holandés en su nuevo rol como secretario general de la OTAN”, explica Simon Schlegel, analista senior del think tank International Crisis Group en Kiev, a EL ESPAÑOL. “Y creo que su habilidad como negociador hará que se logren acuerdos con gobiernos como el húngaro”, añade el experto en alusión a Viktor Orbán, el líder europeo que más cerca se encuentra de Moscú.

Se refiere a acuerdos que permitan mejorar la coordinación de los miembros de la OTAN a la hora de enviar ayuda a Ucrania o acuerdos que obliguen a incrementar los costes en materia de Defensa para expandir la industria armamentística del viejo continente. Abrir nuevas fábricas, contratar más personal. Ese tipo de cosas. “Ya hemos pasado el momento de ir al almacén, coger lo prometido y enviárselo a Ucrania”, dice. Principalmente porque esos almacenes se encuentran cada vez más vacíos. Un hándicap notable teniendo en cuenta que enfrente los rusos llevan tiempo instalados en la economía de guerra.

Pero hay quien piensa que, pese al apoyo a Ucrania demostrado una y otra vez como primer ministro holandés, Rutte podría adoptar un nuevo rumbo si las circunstancias invitan a ello. Si Trump regresa a la Casa Blanca, por ejemplo, y los rusos continúan avanzando en Ucrania. ¿No cabría, ante un escenario semejante, la posibilidad de que movido precisamente por su pragmatismo trate de plantear una alternativa que implique sentarse a negociar con Putin?

“No me consta que exista ese temor aquí y, de hecho, se suele hablar muy bien de Rutte”, explica Schlegel. Y añade: “En Ucrania nadie está en contra del pragmatismo, la gente es muy consciente de que la guerra tiene que terminar en algún momento, pero lo que no se contempla es una rendición”. Porque una rendición, según han explicado en repetidas ocasiones las autoridades ucranianas, comprometería toda una serie de condiciones mínimas de seguridad y, con ellas, el derecho de Ucrania a existir como nación soberana.