At the beginning of this month, Mark Rutte was the longest-serving prime minister and he says he will stay for a while. Nevertheless, especially in recent years there has been speculation about an international career that he may or may not aspire to. For a while it was rumored that he would go for a top European job and more recently his name has sounded like the possible successor to Jens Stoltenberg as NATO Secretary General.
In this fifth summer episode of Haagse Zaken, we zoom in on those international top positions. You will hear from Michel Kerres, editor of geopolitics, about positions at the UN, EU and NATO. About visible top jobs such as those of Queen Máxima (UN), Diederik Samsom and Frans Timmermans (both European Commission). And about less visible – but no less influential – positions. We discuss what happens behind the scenes when there are vacancies for top positions, what the Netherlands does to get important posts and why it is important to keep denying until you are appointed.
It is recess in The Hague, the House of Representatives building is extinct, the cabinet works with summer schedules and we offer you special summer episodes during the recess. About topics that are often discussed sideways in The Hague Affairs, but which we now want to take the time for. This was the last episode of this summer series. We’ll be back in two weeks with a brand new regular episode.
@LamyaeA // @MichelKerres
Read here the reconstruction Michel and four NRC colleagues made of Lubbers’ failed attempt to become Secretary General of NATO.
Read here the reconstruction that Philip de Witt Wijnen and Annemarie Kas made of how Dijsselbloem was re-elected as president of the Eurogroup.
Read Marike Stellinga’s interview with Dijsselbloem about his time as president of the Eurogroup here.
Read here Stéphane Alonso’s article about the (failed) Hague lobby for Dijsselbloem as director of the IMF.
- Presentation:
- Lamyae Aharouay
- Guest:
- Jorg Leijten
- Editorial & production:
- Ignace Schoot and Iris Verhulsdonk
- Edit:
- Iris Verhulsdonk