Mark Rutte

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.^[3]


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,^[4][5][6] the VVD won the 2021 general election.^[7][8] 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.^[9][10] His government has since taken on a caretaker role pending the formation of a new cabinet.^[11] Due to his ability to come out of political scandals with his reputation undamaged, Rutte has been referred to as "Teflon Mark".^[12]

Early life[edit]

Rutte was born in The Hague, in the province of South Holland,^[13] in a Dutch Reformed family. He is the youngest child of Izaäk Rutte (5 October 1909 – 22 April 1988), a merchant, and his second wife, Hermina Cornelia Dilling (13 November 1923 – 13 May 2020), a secretary. Izaäk Rutte worked for a trading company; first as an importer in the Dutch East Indies, later as a director in the Netherlands. His second wife was a sister of his first wife, Petronella Hermanna Dilling (17 March 1910 – 20 July 1945), who died while she and he were interned together in Tjideng, a prisoner-of-war camp in Batavia, now Jakarta, during World War II.^[14][15] Rutte has seven siblings as a result of his father's two marriages. One of his elder brothers died from AIDS in the 1980s. Rutte later described the deaths of his brother and his father as events that changed the course of his life.^[16][17]


Rutte attended the Maerlant Lyceum from 1979 until 1985,^[18] specialising in the arts. Although his original ambition was to attend a conservatory and become a concert pianist,^[19] he instead went to study history at Leiden University, where he obtained an MA degree in 1992.^[20] Rutte combined his studies with a position on the board of the Youth Organisation Freedom and Democracy, the youth organisation of the VVD, of which he was the chair from 1988 to 1991.^[21]


After his studies Rutte entered the business world, working as a manager for Unilever and its food subsidiary Calvé. Until 1997, Rutte was part of the human resource department of Unilever, and played a leading role in several reorganisations. Between 1997 and 2000, Rutte was staff manager of Van den Bergh Nederland, a subsidiary of Unilever. In 2000, Rutte became a member of the Corporate Human Resources Group, and in 2002, he became human resource manager for IgloMora Groep, another subsidiary of Unilever.^[22]


Between 1993 and 1997, Rutte was a member of the national board of the VVD. Rutte also served as a member of the VVD candidate committee for the general election of 2002. Rutte was elected as Member of Parliament in 2003.

Personal life[edit]

Rutte is single.^[13][75] He is a member of the Dutch Protestant Church.^[76] As of 2021, Rutte still taught social studies at the Johan de Witt College, a secondary school in The Hague.^[20][77] Rutte is known to be a big fan of the writing of Robert Caro, especially his 1974 book about Robert Moses, The Power Broker.^[78] He drives a Saab 9-3 estate.^[79] As of 2024, he has lived for several decades in an apartment in Benoordenhout, a neighbourhood of The Hague.^[80][81]