Will Frans Timmermans? – NRC

The unexpected departure of Lilianne Ploumen from politics immediately reminded me, as a football fan, of Marco van Basten.

Not that Van Basten has ever shown much political commitment, but he did say goodbye, just like Ploumen now, as if by magic to the profession in which he had grown up: football. And he, too, did so in a way that stood out with a harrowing dose of self-criticism. That doesn’t happen often. Most goodbyes add all kinds of things – informal care, opposition, exhaustion, illness – but rarely their own failure.

Van Basten had been a top football player and after a lot of injury he switched to the coaching profession, first at Young Ajax, then with varying degrees of success for the Dutch national team, Ajax, Heerenveen and AZ, where he quickly called in sick with palpitations and finally put an end to his new career. “It didn’t keep me awake at night,” he explained, “but I was responsible and wanted to do it right. That didn’t work, and I do care about that, but that’s human of course.”

Very human even, as is the tendency to blame it not on your own shortcomings, but on those of others. Ploumen broke with that habit even more rigorously than Van Basten. She stated that as a party leader she did not consider herself distinctive enough in style, positions, idea development and debating skills.

Methinks a man can be more merciful to himself. The only question that left me with: How could someone with as much self-critical ability and political experience as they’ve imagined be able to handle such a tough job? The more so because she had seen first-hand how a pastor like Job Cohen enjoyed this job. In fact, she had undermined Cohen’s position as party chair at the time with sharp criticism: he had been “swept up in that Hague dynamic” and had to be “much more visible”.

What applied to Cohen in 2011, also applied to Ploumen ten years later in the same position: hesitant, not sure enough of himself in public appearances, and apparently also acting with insufficient authority behind the scenes.

At the PvdA they will not faint from a fallen leader – they are used to something – but there will still be an uneasy period. In all developments surrounding the party, the question will always arise: who will be the new leader? The main two candidates are Frans Timmermans and Ahmed Aboutaleb. They will not feel much like a clumsy, hard battle à la Asscher-Samsom, they will show that they want to be ‘asked’. This can lead to all kinds of difficult turmoil in the party leadership with many leaks to avid media. Nothing remains secret in the PvdA, at least not for long.

I give Timmermans the best chances. He has a clearer political profile than Aboutaleb and he has already proven that he can attract many voters. Moreover, the PvdA owes him a few things – the other way around too. He should have come into the picture as party leader much earlier, already at the time when Wouter Bos had such a soft spot for Cohen. The PvdA has treated him carelessly and now has one more chance to make amends.

Will he want it himself?

Yes.