‘A civilized man’, is how columnist Martin Wolf described it the Financial Times sunday in Buitenhof Prime Minister Mark Rutte.
The Oracle of the great & good, who confer annually in the expensive snow of Davos, found that a small open economy like the Netherlands is coping with the turbulent times of world events. Actually, the Prime Minister of the Netherlands does not matter that much.
Commentators and columnists are now shouting in unison that Rutte has had his day. If he steps down, the country would breathe a sigh of relief.
Unfortunately that is only for one day. Or maybe even for a few hours. Rutte could be replaced by Klaas Dijkhoff or Sophie Hermans, but also the Dijkhoff I or the Hermans I cabinet will have their say about the refugee reception, the nitrogen problem, the allowance affair and the loss of purchasing power.
No crisis goes away with the resignation of a prime minister, let alone all crises. Refugees will not decide to go en masse to Denmark instead of the Netherlands, nor will castles in the air be built in which the refugees can be housed. Nitrogen must then also be reduced and purchasing power repaired.
If a simple replacement is not enough, the coalition must be blown up with Rutte’s departure and the people can speak. But that will only make matters worse according to the latest polls. In new elections, the coalition will only have 44 seats left. Even if other ‘reasonable parties’ (PvdA, GroenLinks) would participate, there is no majority.
The best solution is a new government of protest parties with Caroline van der Plas as prime minister, Wilders on the Interior and Asylum Policy, Baudet on Finance, Eerdmans on Foreign Affairs, Marijnissen on Social Affairs and Ouwehand on Agriculture and the Environment. The polder model ends up as a banana republic. And further doomed, governments of banana republics are often overthrown with a coup. The generals are already working well on their PR. The commander of the Armed Forces Onno Eichelsheim recently even participated in the Canal Parade during Pride.
Rutte would be past its expiration date. But so does Olaf Scholz. Three quarters of Germans are dissatisfied with him and he hasn’t even been there for a year. Macron went into free fall after his reelection. And Biden, who manages to do quite a bit, is not welcomed by most Americans either. Indian Prime Minister Modi appears to be the only leader of a democratic country who enjoys majority support.
There is still a lot to destroy in the Netherlands. Finally, the economy grew by 2.6 percent in the last quarter. Thanks to inflation, the government debt falls to 47 percent of GDP and the government deficit to 0.9 percent. This country has the best or second best pension system in the world and the fourth best health care system in the world. But in all the cynicism, these numbers are silent.
Perhaps some other civilized person can be found who can sell it better.