Rutte consolidates himself as a favorite to lead NATO after Kallas, who wanted the position, gave him his support

The acting Dutch Prime Minister, Mark Rutte (57 years old), consolidates himself as the top favorite to become the new secretary general of the NATO after receiving the support of Estonia, whose prime minister, Kaja Kallasa rising figure in European politics for his hard line against Russia, had publicly expressed interest in the position.

The appointment of the successor of Jens Stoltenberg at the head of the Atlantic Alliance – who has been in office for 10 years and is leaving in October – will be addressed during the meeting of the foreign ministers of the 32 member states that begins this Wednesday in Brussels, which commemorates the 75th anniversary of NATO. However, all the sources consulted rule out an agreement now to appoint Rutte.

The Dutchman has the support of an “overwhelming” majority of countries, among them the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany or Spain. His only declared rival is the president of Romania, Klaus Iohanniswho defends that his country has a “deep knowledge” of the current security situation created by Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, but that it has barely managed to gather support.

[Kaja Kallas, la nueva ‘dama de hierro’ de la UE a la que Putin ha puesto en su lista negra]

However, Rutte's candidacy collides with Hungary's total rejection for having criticized the policies of Viktor Orbán's radical right government, in particular its law that discriminates against the LGBT community. “The Hungarian Government does not can support a candidate who has tried to put pressure on Hungary“, said his Foreign Minister, Peter Szijjártó.

In this context, Iohannis' entry into play has “complicated” and “delayed” the process to reach a consensus, according to diplomatic sources. The initial idea was to close the appointment of the new NATO Secretary General in April to avoid overlapping with the distribution of senior EU positions after the June elections, but this schedule can no longer be met. The appointment requires unanimity of the 32 allies.

At the end of last year, Kaja Kallas publicly expressed her interest in the position, although has never formalized his candidacy. He defended that it was time for a representative of the Eastern countries to become head of NATO and complained that some allies discarded her precisely because of her hard line towards Russia.

just a week agothe Prime Minister of Estonia was still undecided between Rutte and Iohannis and pointed out that Netherlands fails to meet NATO target of investing at least 2% of GDP in defense (it is at 1.63%).

Despite his doubts, Kallas finally decided this Tuesday to publicly support Rutte. “To achieve a strong NATO, we must stay clear on Russia, increase spending on deterrence and defense, support Ukraine's accession and geographical balance. I have discussed this in depth with Mark Rutte and he is committed to these priorities. Estonia can support him as NATO Secretary General“, has written on his social network account.

Kallas' announcement came after an article went viral in X in the last few hours claiming that she had displaced Rutte as the absolute favorite to lead the Alliance. The news was actually a joke. (in the Anglo-Saxon world April Fool's Day is April 1) but it even confused the renowned journalist and historian Timothy Garton Ash, who congratulated himself on his (false) election. The interested party herself was joking with the article.

Also the president of Lithuania, Nauseda Gypsies, made public this Tuesday his support for Rutte. He does so because of the Dutchman's commitment to Ukraine “until victory”, because of his priority in strengthening NATO's eastern flank and because he has promised to actively promote the objective of 2% investment in defense, as he has written in X.

According to the Dutch press, Rutte already has the support of 28 of the 32 NATO member states. Apart from Hungary and Romania, the other two countries he still has to convince would be Turkey and Slovakia.

“We will continue to debate the pros and cons of the two candidates, until we reach a consensus around one of them, hopefully in the coming weeks. We don't know what the exact schedule will be., but we want to find a solution as soon as possible. At the latest we would like it to be resolved by the Washington summit (in July)”, explained this Tuesday the United States ambassador to NATO, Julianne Smith.

“The position of the United States is that we fully support Mark Rutte as the next secretary general, but we have the utmost respect for our friend President Iohannis, and we appreciate that he has come forward and we wish him the best,” the ambassador concluded.