Teflon Mark Rutte the everyman PM who saw the tide had turned
The Guardian Weekly|July 14, 2023
He was the great survivor of Dutch politics, a man whose capacity to swerve criticism and survive scandal earned him the nickname "Teflon Mark", combining backroom skills with everyman appeal to become the country's longest-serving leader.
Jon Henley
Teflon Mark Rutte the everyman PM who saw the tide had turned

But Mark Rutte told MPs and reporters in The Hague on Monday he would not be standing in the next elections after his divided coalition government collapsed last Friday over asylum policy.

The decision brings to an end the 56-year-old's 17-year tenure as leader of the liberal-conservative People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) and 13 years as prime minister of the Netherlands.

As the EU's longest-serving government leader after Hungary's Viktor Orbán, his name has been floated for several jobs, including at Nato and the European Council.

However, Rutte said he harboured no such ambitions. He teaches social studies once a week at a high school in The Hague. "Maybe I'll do it a couple of times a week," he said.

Diese Geschichte stammt aus der July 14, 2023-Ausgabe von The Guardian Weekly.

Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.

Diese Geschichte stammt aus der July 14, 2023-Ausgabe von The Guardian Weekly.

Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.

WEITERE ARTIKEL AUS THE GUARDIAN WEEKLYAlle anzeigen
We're making a music video-but I can't play, or even act
The Guardian Weekly

We're making a music video-but I can't play, or even act

I am in a lifeboat station on the south coast, standing beneath the stern of a rescue vessel, wearing a borrowed fisherman's jumper and holding a banjo. There are lights on me, and I am very much at sea.

time-read
3 Minuten  |
December 06, 2024
BOOKS OF THE MONTH
The Guardian Weekly

BOOKS OF THE MONTH

The best translated fiction

time-read
2 Minuten  |
December 06, 2024
Village people A chilly tone of doom infects these unsettling folk tales, following a settlement from the deep past to near future
The Guardian Weekly

Village people A chilly tone of doom infects these unsettling folk tales, following a settlement from the deep past to near future

The quintessential \"bad place\" is one of the staples of horror fiction. For Stephen King, the bad place - think the Overlook Hotel in The Shining - usually acts as a repository for a long-forgotten evil or injustice to resurface.

time-read
2 Minuten  |
December 06, 2024
A labour of love Haruki Murakami revisits a hypnotic city of dreams and a tale of teen sweethearts, in material he's worked on over four decades
The Guardian Weekly

A labour of love Haruki Murakami revisits a hypnotic city of dreams and a tale of teen sweethearts, in material he's worked on over four decades

The elegiac quality of Haruki Murakami's new novel, his first in six years, was perhaps inevitable considering its origins. The City and Its Uncertain Walls began as an attempt to rework a 1980 story of the same title, originally published in the Japanese magazine Bungakukai, which Murakami, unsatisfied, never allowed to be republished or translated.

time-read
3 Minuten  |
December 06, 2024
Leading questions The former German chancellor slights her enemies by barely mentioning them-and is frustratingly opaque on her own big calls
The Guardian Weekly

Leading questions The former German chancellor slights her enemies by barely mentioning them-and is frustratingly opaque on her own big calls

Towards the end of her 16-year tenure, former German chancellor Angela Merkel was garlanded with superlative titles: the \"queen of Europe\", the \"most powerful woman in the world\".

time-read
3 Minuten  |
December 06, 2024
Double vision
The Guardian Weekly

Double vision

Is the pay really that good? Do you get bored? We ask 'David Brent', 'Nessa' and 'Ali G' what it's like to make money as the lookalike of a comic creation

time-read
5 Minuten  |
December 06, 2024
Robopop Teen star who does not exist
The Guardian Weekly

Robopop Teen star who does not exist

Miku is a 'Vocaloid' -a holographic avatar that represents a digital bank of vocal samples-performing sellout tours for thousands of very real mega-fans

time-read
3 Minuten  |
December 06, 2024
The show must go wrong
The Guardian Weekly

The show must go wrong

How did a farce about a gaffe-filled amateur dramatic whodunnit become one of Britain's greatest ever exports, the toast of dozens of countries?

time-read
6 Minuten  |
December 06, 2024
Europe's latest radical populist typifies a swing on the continent
The Guardian Weekly

Europe's latest radical populist typifies a swing on the continent

Politics in Romania can be a bloody business, especially on the right. The excesses of the Iron Guard, an insurrectionary, violently antisemitic, ultranationalist 1930s political-religious militia, stood out even at a time when fascist parties were wreaking havoc in Germany, Italy and Spain. Given what is happening in Europe today, the events of that period are instructive.

time-read
3 Minuten  |
December 06, 2024
It's high time to tax cannabis and fix French finances
The Guardian Weekly

It's high time to tax cannabis and fix French finances

France might not be broke, but the state of its public finances is, well, definitely not good. Total debt stands at €3.2tn ($3.4tn) - 112% of GDP. Interest payments on that debt are the second largest public expenditure after education (which includes everything from crêche, or preschool, to universities) and are higher than the amount spent on defence. And this year's budget deficit is projected to be 6%, three points above the EU's 3% limit.

time-read
3 Minuten  |
December 06, 2024