Mark Rutte

Mark Rutte (; born 14 February 1967) is a Dutch politician who served as Prime Minister of the Netherlands between 2010 and 2024. Following his departure from national politics, Rutte will take up the post of NATO Secretary-General in October 2024. Rutte was the leader of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) from 2006 through 2023.

After embarking on a business management career working for Unilever, Rutte entered national politics in 2002 as a member of Jan Peter Balkenende's cabinets. Rutte won the 2006 VVD leadership election and led the party to victory in the 2010 general election. After lengthy coalition negotiations, he became prime minister of the Netherlands. He was the first liberal to be appointed prime minister in 92 years.

An impasse on budget negotiations led to his government's early collapse in April 2012, but the VVD's victory in the subsequent election allowed Rutte to return as prime minister to lead a coalition between the VVD and the Labour Party (PvdA), which became the first cabinet to see out a full four-year term since 1998. Though the VVD lost seats in the 2017 general election, it remained the largest party. After a record-length formation period, Rutte was appointed to lead a new coalition between the VVD, Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA), Democrats 66 (D66) and Christian Union (CU).

Though Rutte and his cabinet resigned in response to the childcare benefits scandal, the VVD won the 2021 general election. Rutte began his fourth term in 2022 after another record-length formation period. On 7 July 2023, he announced his government's resignation after his coalition failed to agree on how to handle increasing migration. His government took on a caretaker role until the Schoof cabinet was sworn in on 2 July 2024. Due to his ability to come out of political scandals with his reputation undamaged, Rutte has been referred to as "Teflon Mark". He has been described as flexible and pragmatic, willing to accommodate a broad range of political factions in order to address issues. Provided by Wikipedia