Mark Rutte
Mark Rutte (born 14 February 1967, The Hague) is a Dutch politician and, since October 14, 2010 Prime Minister of the Netherlands. Since 2006 he is a political leader of the right-wing liberal Volkspartij voor de Vrijheid Democracy (VVD ). From 2006 to 2010 he was the Chairman of the Group in the national parliament.
Life
A native of a Christian family Rutte has studied at the University of Leiden history and after studying at Unilever. He is single and is a member of the Protestant Church in the Netherlands.
Policy
From 1988 to 1991 Mark Rutte was leader of the liberal youth organization JOVD and 1993-1997 Board member of the party. He was Secretary of State for Labour and Social Affairs and of Education 2004, 2002.
In 2006 he became leader of the VVD. He was succeeded in October 2010 Stef Blok.
Power struggle for leadership of the VVD
After the position of the political leader was released in the VVD, the viewed as moderate and more socially liberal Rutte competed on 8 March 2006 for it. His counterpart candidate was Rita Verdonk, who stood for a tough stance on the issues of immigration and crime. 51.5 percent of the party members decided on 31 May 2006 for Rutte, the VVD 's lead candidate, and on 29 June 2006 Group Chairman was.
In the chamber elections in late 2006 Verdonk received significantly more votes than Rutte, what this brought a corresponding loss of reputation. ( In the Netherlands, one chooses a single candidate and at the same time the party. ) Such votes success is very unusual for the number two a choice list. Verdonk, however, was excluded because of provocative statements from the Group in 2007. She left the party and founded Trots op Nederland.
Prime minister
Survey results on May 2010, according to the VVD was under Rutte strongest party, with 31 (of 150) seats ahead of the Social Democrats. The gain for the Liberals was explained mainly by the decline of the Christian Democrats ( only 21 seats in the survey ). Rutte was considered a serious contender for the post of prime minister, but also the EU Commissioner Neelie Kroes ( also VVD) had not excluded her interest.
The election on 9 June 2010 yielded 31 seats for the VVD, one more seat than the social democratic PvdA as the second strongest party. This may not be the highest per -won of the VVD value, but for the first time VVD became the largest party ( mainly because of the loss of Christian Democrats). On 8 October 2010 transferred Queen Beatrix Rutte to form a government after the three parties and factions agreed to the coalition and toleration contracts.
The Cabinet Rutte I broke then on 14 October 2010 from the Cabinet Balkenende IV as the Government of the Netherlands. It was a minority government of the conservative-liberal People's Party for Freedom and Democracy ( VVD ) and the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA ), which was tolerated by the Party for Freedom (PVV ). The coalition possessed together with the PVV 76 of 150 seats in the Second Chamber of the Dutch Parliament.
On April 23, 2012 offered Mark Rutte Queen Beatrix of the resignation of his cabinet after the PVV the minority government had withdrawn their support. The PVV did not support that this thought was necessary in order not to violate the EU Stability Pact the austerity package the government. In September 2012, followed by early elections, from which Rutte VVD emerged as the strongest force. According to the preliminary results, the party won 41 of 150 seats of the Parliament of the Second Chamber. These were two seats more than those of the Partij van de Arbeid with its leading candidate Diederik Samsom. End of October 2012, the VVD and the PvdA agreed on the formation of a grand coalition, Rutte will also project the new government as prime minister.
Views
2008 Rutte said in an interview that the Netherlands would have gone from the "terror of mediocrity ":
"The state must be small and strong, no luck machine that takes care of the people all of life from the hands. People need to live with verve, get space to make their life into something extraordinary. The VVD is fighting for the uplift of the lower class, with good education, we want to let people stand on their own two feet. The happiness sitting in the people, not the state. "
At the same time, he stressed that one must set limits to foreigners. One must have the courage to say: " this civilization basics, the language, the Constitution and the Dutch history, all this belongs to us "
In May 2009, Rutte came up with the claim in the media that Holocaust denial should no longer be a criminal offense because of the freedom of expression. He had always been " stupid " ( mallotig ) found the ban. For this he was criticized both within and outside his party.
Rutte spoke out in May 2010 for a stricter asylum policy. Asylum seekers should be able to only permanently remain in the Netherlands if they apply for citizenship. There were only "real refugees " and to include any " fortune seekers ". Furthermore Rutte is a maintaining of the current regime to hypotheekrenteaftrek, the favorable tax treatment of mortgage interest.
During the coalition negotiations in 2010 Rutte said in September on a first a failed agreement of the three right-wing parties that the Dutch rights thereby fingers would have licked. Emphasized later in the negotiations and when he took office Rutte, however, he wants to be Prime Minister for all and not just for the rights.