{"id":6763,"date":"2020-10-14T10:00:39","date_gmt":"2020-10-14T10:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/?p=6763"},"modified":"2020-11-13T12:56:06","modified_gmt":"2020-11-13T12:56:06","slug":"a-decade-with-premier-mark-rutte","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/a-decade-with-premier-mark-rutte\/","title":{"rendered":"A Decade with Premier Mark Rutte"},"content":{"rendered":"

This month marks the 10th anniversary of Prime Minister Mark Rutte as the head of the Dutch government. The 10 years have been marked by a world-wide financial crisis and its aftermath, the shooting of flight MH17 in Ukraine, the refugee crisis, Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic. In this post, I want to point out a few highlights and lowlights of our very own Minister President Mark Rutte.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Photo taken by EU2016 NL found on Flickr.com with license CC BY 2.0<\/p><\/div>\n

Quick Bio<\/h3>\n

Mark Rutte is one of seven children. His father, Izaak Rutte worked for a trade company in Indonesia. During WWII, Izaak and his first wife, Petronella Hermanna Dilling, were prisoners of war in modern-day Jakarta. Petronella did not survive the camp, but Izaak did. Later on, he married his deceased wife’s sister Mieke Dilling and had 4 children including Mark Rutte, in addition to the 3 Izaak had with Petronella.<\/p>\n

After finishing high school, Mark Rutte started his studies at a\u00a0conservatorium<\/em> to study piano, however, he changed his mind and went to study geschiedenis<\/em> or history at the University of Leiden. After finishing his Masters, he began working for Unilever. Since his time at university, Rutte was part of the liberal youth political organization JOVD, and later on became an official lid <\/em>or member of his current political party VVD.\u00a0In 2002, Rutte became\u00a0staatsecretaris van Sociale Zaken en Werkgelengenheid,\u00a0<\/em>and proceeded to move around several positions until becoming lijsttrekker\u00a0<\/em>or lead candidate for the VVD.<\/p>\n

Premier Rutte<\/h3>\n

Rutte has been Minister President for three election cycles; these are commonly referred to as Rutte 1, Rutte 2, and Rutte 3. Winning the most votes, however, does not mean that the VVD or the Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie<\/em>, has a majority in either kamer<\/em>. Because the Netherlands has several parties, each cycle, they’ve had to create a coalition or\u00a0coalitie<\/em> with other parties. Mark Rutte is the first liberal prime minister since 1918; the conservative political parties PvdA and CDA had been on the lead since.<\/p>\n

Throughout his 10 years leading the Dutch government, Premier Rutte has kept an image of a ‘normal’ person. He lives in the same apartment he purchased right after college, he still owns his old Saab car, and he cycles everywhere he goes. In the next section, I want to point out a few ‘normal’ moments or habits of our prime minister.<\/p>\n

Koffie moment<\/h3>\n

You might remember an old video of Mark Rutte opruiming<\/em> or cleaning up coffee he spilled. \u00a0This video became very popular with international news outlets picking it up. The video was meant to show Rutte as a down-to-earth premier, however, some saw this as a publicity stunt. Regardless of his intentions, the gesture is not lost.<\/p>\n