A New Economics Playbook is About to Drop in Europe. The U.S. Should be on Notice.
The former Italian prime minister is preparing to issue a sweeping report on economic competitiveness.
His withdrawal removes the last real hurdle Rutte might face. It should allow NATO to put on a show of unity and demonstrate solidarity with war-ravaged Ukraine when U.S. President Joe Biden and his counterparts meet in Washington on July 9-11 to mark NATO’s 75th birthday.
And then there was one: Mark Rutte.
Romania's president withdraws from the race for NATO chief
- Rutte’s appointment could be sealed by a meeting of NATO ambassadors in coming days, or by the leaders when they meet in Washington.
- He would officially start work on Oct. 1.
- On Tuesday, Hungary lifted its veto on Rutte’s candidacy after the long-serving Dutch prime minister gave written guarantees that he would not force Budapest to take part in the military alliance’s new plans to provide support to Ukraine should he be appointed.
- Turkey had also voiced opposition to Rutte’s bid but lifted its objections in April.
In office for a decade, outgoing Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has been a steady hand at NATO’s helm and has proved difficult to replace.
Biden and the NATO leaders had been due to name a successor when they met in Lithuania in July 2023, but no consensus could be found about a replacement.
At the White House on Monday, Biden joked that he would like the former Norwegian prime minister to stay longer, even though Stoltenberg has made it clear he will leave office this time after several extensions to his mandate.
“I mean it sincerely, you’ve been great. I just wish you’d extend your term another 10 years,” Biden said.
Iohannis is nearing the end of his second five-year term as Romania’s president and announced his intention to run in March.
Romania, a NATO member since 2004, borders Ukraine and played an increasingly prominent role in the alliance throughout Russia’s full-scale invasion, including hosting a NATO meeting of foreign ministers in November 2022.
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AP video journalist Nicolae Dumitrache in Bucharest, Romania, contributed to this report.
Under Rutte, the Dutch government has given Ukraine €2.63bn (£2.22bn) in military support and promised a further €2bn for 2024. “Ukraine must win this battle. For their security and ours,” Rutte has said.
He also led a push to give Kyiv F-16 fighter jets, a decision described by President Volodymyr Zelenskiy as “historic” on a trip to the Netherlands.
Outgoing Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte wins race to head NATO
Mark Rutte seizes lead in NATO job race as he exits Dutch politics
Mark Rutte seizes lead in NATO job race as he exits Dutch politics
Estonia’s Kaja Kallas and Latvia’s Krisjanis Karins are bidding for the NATO top job
Allies aim to agree on Jens Stoltenberg’s successor as secretary general by July
Weeks after revealing his ambition to take on the NATO secretary-general post in a chat with Dutch national radio, the Netherlands' outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte says it was a "mistake" to be so candid, while letting everyone know he's definitely still running.
Traveling all over the world to lobby peers and explore ways to overcome the hurdles towards the NATO job, Rutte visibly got back some of the enthusiasm and drive that he once had as a young prime minister but had lost by his fourth, most difficult government.
He had become tired of being prime minister, and the country had gotten tired of him. A housing crisis, rising environmental and economic problems, and a nasty social child benefits scandal that hit some of the poorest and most disadvantaged in the country—these and other issues were too profound and serious to be managed away with yet another round of Ruttian compromise-making. A fresh look at things was required in the Netherlands—and perhaps more structural solutions were required, too.
In Brussels, interestingly, one hears very little concern about Rutte’s capability to run NATO.
NATO’s New Leader Was Planning This the Whole Time
Mark Rutte, a workaholic obsessed with routine, is about to take over the West’s military alliance.
When Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte visited U.S. President Joe Biden in the White House in January 2023, he told Biden: “You have asked me twice to become secretary-general of NATO, and I turned you down twice. If you ask me a third time, I will say yes.”
From that moment on, Rutte—who had been prime minister since 2010—started behaving differently. Slowly, methodically, he began working towards his goal: succeeding Jens Stoltenberg, NATO’s current secretary-general, in October 2024. This week, after reportedly having secured Hungarian and Slovakian endorsements and the withdrawal of the candidacy of Romanian President Klaus Iohannis, he is essentially there.
It’s only fair to wonder what kind of “sec-gen” Rutte will be—and whether he can steer the trans-Atlantic alliance through turbulent times. Some indications can be found in Rutte’s long career—both his 14-year premiership, during which he led four different governing coalitions in the Netherlands, and his careful preparations to secure the Brussels-based NATO job.
Probably the most important thing to know about Rutte, who was born in 1967 as the youngest of seven in a middle-class family in The Hague (his father managed a car dealership), is that he is a very controlled person. He often gives people the impression that he is spontaneous, taking things lightly as they come. But under the surface of the easygoing, smiling Dutchman who cycles to the office, apple in hand, there is a lot more going on.
Rutte is swarmed by reporters as he arrives at Huis ten Bosch Palace to offer his resignation in The Hague, Netherlands, on July 8, 2023. PATRICK VAN KATWIJK/GETTY IMAGES
As many people who have worked with him can testify, Rutte is a man of habits. He hates surprises, because they can make him lose control. When friends organize a surprise dinner for him, he is tense, unable to enjoy it. When a minister in his government jumps out of line, he can be annoyed or become extremely angry.
All his professional life, Rutte has worked in management functions—first as a human resources official for Unilever; then as a liberal party leader starting in 2006; and during the 14 years since 2010, managing both left-wing and right-wing characters in the governments that he led. Many who observes him in these roles say his management style is shaped, above all, by his desire to prevent surprises.
He does this first by trying to work with people he can trust. He is highly personable with staff, often asking them about family, hobbies, and holidays. And he remembers everything—from spouses’ names to a joke that someone made during a trip more than a decade ago. But this intimacy is also a way of managing his relationships with staff and getting a read on them, thus anticipating their thoughts and actions.
Trust, for Rutte, is the product of routine—both at the office and in his private life. Every year, he rents the same simple holiday house with family members. For 30 years, he has spent a few days each year in New York with the same friend, staying in the same cheap hotel in Chinatown, eating in the same restaurants, always meeting Robert Caro, the biographer of former U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson. (Rutte, a historian by training, is an avid reader of American political biographies.) In The Hague, he always takes coffee on Saturday morning in the same café, then gets his groceries at the same Albert Heijn supermarket. On Sunday morning at 10 o’clock, he meets other friends—again, always the same ones—at a sports club. During government meetings that run late, he tends to order the same food. The whole town knows about these habits, and many make fun of it.
In a new biography about Rutte, called Het Raadsel Rutte (The Rutte Riddle), Dutch political reporters Ron Fresen and Wilma Borgman quote his New York travel companion, who explains they never discuss where to eat “because we know it already. This saves us time and energy we can spend discussing more interesting things.”
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