Mark Rutte, the acting prime minister of the Netherlands, will be the next secretary general of NATO. The North Atlantic Council – the political decision-making body that brings together the 32 ambassadors of the countries that form the coalition – has decided that Rutte will succeed Jens Stoltenberg at the head of the Alliance as of October 1, when the mandate of the North Atlantic Council expires. Norwegian who has been in office for the last ten years.
Who is Mark Rutte?
Mark Rutte (1967, The Hague) has headed four consecutive governments in the Netherlands since 2010, that is, for 14 consecutive years. With a degree in History, Rutte has been in politics since his youth: in the 80s he was president of the youth of the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VDD, for its acronym in Dutch), a party that he has led since 2006.
Resignation in 2021. Rutte resigned along with his government in January 2021 due to a scandal of racial discrimination in the granting of social aid to families with children. Those affected, most of them immigrants, were accused of fraud without foundation and were forced to return the subsidies. The Dutch leader ran as head of his party’s list and achieved his fourth re-election in January 2022.
Fall of his cabinet in 2023. Mark Rutte resigned again due to disagreements over the asylum policy in July 2023. The prime minister called for a tightening of the family reunification policy for war refugees, a position that ended up breaking the coalition government.
Since then, his Government has assumed a provisional role pending the formation of a new cabinet after the November 2023 elections, which it lost to the far-right Party for Freedom (PVV).
Defense spending. Among his most controversial measures, Mark Rutte has increased defense spending in his country, which has gone from 1.44% in 2022 to 2.05%, especially as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Sources
NATO
Profile of Mark Rutte from the Government of the Netherlands
EFE
