The outgoing Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, has won the race to become the next head of Nato at a perilous moment for the western alliance, after his only rival withdrew his bid.
The long-serving Dutch leader is expected to be confirmed formally as Nato’s secretary general in the coming days and take over when the incumbent head, Jens Stoltenberg, steps down on 1 October after nearly a decade in charge.
Rutte’s imminent appointment comes as Ukraine faces relentless pressure from Russian bombardment in its eastern regions, while Nato-sceptic Donald Trump vies for another term in the White House.
Rutte, 57, is a strong supporter of Ukraine and quickly won the support of key Nato countries, including the US, the UK, France and Germany, after he threw his hat in the ring following his decision to retire from Dutch politics.
Although he is a critic of Vladimir Putin, Rutte could be perceived as less hawkish than possible candidates from central and eastern Europe, making him a near consensus choice.
But to secure the job, which requires unanimous agreement of Nato’s 32 members, he had to win an endorsement from an initially wary Turkey, then overcome opposition from Hungary.
The final hurdle to his appointment fell on Thursday when the Romanian president, Klaus Iohannis, announced he was withdrawing from the race. Romania will back Rutte and donate one of its two operational Patriot missile systems to Ukraine on condition that allies replace it with a similar air defence system, Bucharest’s supreme defence council, chaired by Iohannis, said.
Earlier in the week Rutte persuaded Viktor Orbán to support his bid, overcoming years of tensions between the EU’s two longest-serving leaders over democratic standards in Hungary and EU spending. Rutte once said Hungary had “no business being in the European Union any more” owing to Hungary’s anti-LGBTQ+ legislation.
At a meeting in Brussels, Rutte gave the Hungarian leader assurances that no Hungarian troops or money would be deployed in Ukraine, in line with an existing agreement. Slovakia, another holdout, soon followed in announcing its support for Rutte.
Rutte takes the reins of the alliance after nearly 14 years as Dutch prime minister and 18 as leader of his liberal People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy.
He is the great survivor of Dutch politics, nicknamed “Teflon Mark” for his ability to avoid being tainted by scandals. For years his straight-talking, no-nonsense persona endeared him to Dutch voters, propelling him to lead four different coalition governments in a row. In one viral video, he insisted on mopping up coffee he had spilled, as cleaning staff applauded and he laughed at his own clumsiness.
Well known for cycling to work – or driving a battered Saab when in a hurry – Rutte does his own supermarket shopping and lives in the same part of The Hague where he grew up, in a house he bought with friends as a student.
For several years he has taught social studies once a week at a Dutch high school. “Maybe I’ll do it a couple of times a week,” he said last July when he announced he would not be running for election again, after his coalition collapsed over immigration policy.
Another nickname is the “Trump whisperer” for his ability to manage the former US president, who may return to the White House after the November US election. Rutte is widely credited with rescuing a 2018 Nato summit by talking Trump around on defence spending.
Under Rutte, the Dutch government has given Ukraine €2.63bn (£2.22bn) in military support and promised a further €2bn for 2024. “Ukraine must win this battle. For their security and ours,” Rutte has said.
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He also led a push to give Kyiv F-16 fighter jets, a decision described by President Volodymyr Zelenskiy as “historic” on a trip to the Netherlands.
The shooting down of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over Ukraine in 2014, with 196 Dutch people among the 298 people killed, was a defining moment in Dutch attitudes towards the Kremlin. Two weeks after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Rutte described Putin as “cold-hearted, brutal, merciless”.
Ukraine has also revealed Rutte’s evolving views towards the EU. “He’s been on a journey,” one EU diplomat said. “There has been a clear trajectory, going from ‘the EU is a market’ towards ‘we need to defend Ukraine to defend our values’.”
At the beginning of his premiership, his wariness of some EU integration made him a close ally of the then UK prime minister, David Cameron. But the chaos unleashed by the Brexit vote, as well as the 2015-16 migration crisis, reconciled Rutte to the EU as a foreign policy player. “There is no such thing as splendid isolation,” Rutte said in 2019 in a landmark speech when he called for a stronger, more united Europe to deal with an array of global problems.
Under Rutte, the Dutch have played an outsized role in EU politics. Before Brexit, Dutch officials used to joke that they had six policy officers dealing with any given EU file – one in The Hague and five in London. After, the Netherlands became a more influential player, aided by Rutte’s years of experience.
Rutte has never been afraid to speak his mind, once arriving for EU budget negotiations with a biography of Frédéric Chopin to get through the night because “what else is there to do”. Angela Merkel was said to be irritated by his behaviour.
That Dutch bluntness was on display at the Munich Security Conference in February when he said Europe had to work “with whoever is on the dancefloor”.
“All that whining and moaning about Trump – I hear that constantly over the last couple of days, let’s stop doing that,” he said.