Mark Rute – the new Secretary General of NATO

NATO has officially appointed outgoing Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte as its new Secretary General. The 57-year-old will succeed Norwegian Jens Stoltenberg at the beginning of October.

After the collapse of the ruling coalition in the Netherlands last summer over a dispute over migrant policy, Prime Minister Mark Rutte publicly announced that he was retiring from politics altogether - but he clearly didn't mean it. Because not only did he remain at the head of the government until early elections this spring, in which the right-wing populist Geert Wilders was the winner, but he also let his partners in the European Union know that he is interested in becoming the Secretary General of NATO after Jens Stoltenberg, whose mandate expires at the beginning of October.

In fact, it would be completely in the spirit of the Western military alliance, according to which the position of military commander regularly belongs to the most important NATO country, the United States of America, and the position of secretary general to a European. And preferably from a country that is not an overly large military power: out of 14 secretaries-general, only three were British - the first secretary-general, politician and general Hastings Ismay until 1957, Peter Carrington (1984-1988) and George Robertson (1999-2003 ).

Once it was also a German - Manfred Werner, from 1988 until his death in August 1994, but otherwise it was almost regularly representatives of smaller members of the Alliance. Thus, Mark Rute would actually be the fourth Dutchman in that position, after Dirk Stiker (1961-1964), Jozef Luns (1971-1984) and Jaap de Hop Schefer (2004-2009).

Dutch aid to Ukraine

But many Europeans, and perhaps above all Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, did not like Rute's attitude towards Ukraine and Russia at all. Namely, the Rute government was among the first to generously help Ukraine with military equipment - even though it was the Liberal Rute government that drastically reduced defense spending at the same time, so that the Dutch arsenals are also in a poor state.

At the same time, it should be recalled that the Netherlands has not forgotten and cannot forgive Russia for the downing of the Malaysia Airlines civilian plane on flight MH-17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur in 2014, when most of the nearly 300 victims were Dutch, and the investigation unequivocally established that the plane was shot down by a Russian missile fired at least from a position controlled by pro-Russian forces in eastern Ukraine.

That is why the choice of Rute was not entirely to the liking of Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fitz. On the other hand, Rute promised Hungarian Prime Minister Orban that he would stick to the promise that Stoltenberg made to Budapest: Hungary would not have to participate in military or any other aid to Ukraine, but that it would not prevent the military alliance from doing so. Under this assumption, Orbán also announced on social networks that Hungary is "ready to support" the Dutchman in the position of NATO Secretary General.

A similar agreement was reached in Bratislava. "After the final discussion with Marko Rute and consultations with the government of Slovakia, Slovakia can envision Marko Rute as the head of NATO," Slovak President Peter Pelegrini said.

Time for "new"?

There were several other, very good arguments in Rute's favor - first of all, the surprisingly good relationship of that Dutch politician with former and possibly future US President Donald Trump, who even called Rute a "friend".

Another argument is NATO itself as it is. It was not always easy for the previous Secretary General Stoltenberg to lead all 32 member states towards the same goal. Namely, the problem here is not only the aid to Ukraine and the relationship with Russia. There is e.g. and Alliance member Turkey with its ambitions in the region, which the other members are almost completely oblivious to. That's why it would be better if someone from the north of Europe, and not a politician from the Balkans, is at the head of NATO again.

Without passion, but pragmatic

The Dutch journalist and author of the book about Rute, Sheila Sittalsing, is well aware of the cases in which Rute was by no means famous - such as, for example, the disastrous actions of his government during the corona pandemic when it threatened to collapse the entire health system of that country. Despite this, she assesses that Rute is "a very successful manager in crises".

Until recently, it was difficult for the Dutch prime minister to determine any political position at all, but with such a "prime minister without anchor and compass, a compromise always had to be reached. That's how we could always move on, but without any passion and conviction," she writes in her book. Of course, there were crises and scandals, but, he adds, it was not by chance that in the Netherlands they gave their prime minister the nickname "Teflon Rute" - because he always somehow managed to "slip away from him" all the accusations.

Mark Rute was a record holder at the head of the government of the Netherlands - he held that office for four terms, from 2010 until this spring. And even though coalition partners changed in his government, he always somehow knew how to reach an agreement. And the citizens of the Netherlands were mostly satisfied with his government and pragmatic way of managing the country. Some big ideas and visions - as could be heard for example from the French President Emmanuel Macron - regularly broke on Rutte's government in The Hague, which previously strove for the "politics of small steps". And these are also qualities that will definitely help the new NATO Secretary General in performing his tasks.