After 13 years in power, Mark Rutte announced his departure from politics and early elections due to disagreements in the coalition over immigration. The Dutch Prime Minister wanted more restrictive measures, namely with regard to the right to family reunification. Something the favorite to succeed her in the leadership of the liberal People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), also defends the Minister of Justice, Dilan Yesilgöz – despite being born in Turkey and benefiting from these policies as a child .
As the leader in the Netherlands since 2010, the liberals will try to win the elections on November 22 for the first time without Rutte. But the task could become complicated after the social democrats of the Labor Party (PvdA) joined forces with Groen Links in a joint candidacy. Leading the polls, this alliance is led by the current Vice President of the European Commission in charge of climate action, Frans Timmermans, known as the European “Climate Pope”.
The former head of diplomacy, who left The Hague for Brussels in 2014, had announced in July that he wanted to return to Dutch politics to lead the centre-left candidacy. “I want to be prime minister because I think we can do politics differently than we have done in recent years, that we can create a fairer society, where the market serves the people and not the other way around.” said at the time. Yesterday, the two sides made his nomination official, which must be confirmed in a vote by the militants. The results will be known on 22 August, after which a successor will have to be appointed to his post in Brussels.
The left-wing alliance appears in the polls with 18% of voting intentions, one percentage point above the VVD and two points above the right-wing pro-agricultural BBB populists. Caroline van der Plas’ party made its debut in 2021 with one deputy, but received the most votes (20% of the vote) in the Senate elections in May. A scenario they hope to repeat in November, at a time when Dutch politics is going through a real earthquake.
Numerous list leaders (and seasoned MPs) have followed Rutte’s example and announced that they would not go to the polls. Of the parties with the most parliamentary representation – there are currently 16 political formations with at least one of the 150 seats – only the Party for Freedom (the anti-immigrant far-right party) will not see a leadership change. Geert Wilders is made of stone and lime. Of the four parties in the coalition, only the ChristenUnie had no problems: Mirjam Bikker was elected party leader in January.
In the VVD, Dilan Yesilgöz, born 46 years ago in Ankara, appears as the favorite to succeed Rutte and could become the first woman to take the lead of the Dutch government – the deadline for submitting applications ends tomorrow. Daughter of a Kurdish father, who had fled Turkey and obtained political refugee status in the Netherlands, Yesilgöz moved to Amsterdam with her mother and younger sister at the age of seven.
He studied Social and Cultural Sciences at university and his career in politics started on the left (in the Socialist Party). He was later in the PvdA and the Greens, before joining the right-liberals of the VVD. She has been a deputy since 2017. She worked at the State Secretary for Economic Affairs before becoming Minister of Justice in January 2022.
The second largest party in the House of Representatives and the coalition, D66, was also without a leader. Finance Minister Sigrid Kaag announced she was leaving politics due to the negative impact it has on her family, after receiving numerous threats and hate messages online. Successor candidates will be announced today, but climate minister Rob Jetten is the favourite. At the age of 36, he argues that it is time for the new generation to take over.
The choice of a party leader in the CDA, another party in the coalition, seemed more complicated after the departure of Deputy Prime Minister and head of diplomacy Wopke Hoekstra. The party is expected to announce its candidate on Monday, but only yesterday did rumors surface about who that could be: deputy Henri Bontenbal. The executive chairman of the CDA, Hans Huibers, has since resigned after several criticisms of the course of the process.
The party was still trying to get the return of Peter Omtzigt, a deputy since 2003 who left the CDA in 2021 and became independent. According to the Dutch media, polls show that he could achieve a very good result if he decides to form his own party and enter the race (shaking the odds for everyone). Omtzigt was instrumental in exposing the scandal in which thousands of people (mostly migrants) were wrongly accused of child benefit fraud and forced to return the money. A scandal that led to the fall of the Rutte III cabinet. Omtzigt has already refused to return to the CDA and rejected approaches from the BBB, saying he had gone on vacation without deciding on the future. The deadline for registering new parties ends on August 28.
Source: DN
