Prime Minister of the Netherlands
Mark Rutte born February 14, 1967) is a Dutch politician of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD). He is the Prime Minister of the Netherlands since 14 October 2010.
He served State Secretary for Social Affairs and Employment from July 22, 2002, until June 17, 2004, and State Secretary for Education, Culture and Science from June 17, 2004, until June 27, 2006, in the Cabinets Balkenende I and II. He resigned as State Secretary in June 2006 to return to the House of Representatives and became the Parliamentary leader of the VVD.
He was the lijsttrekker for the VVD for the Dutch general election of 2006 and the Party leader of the VVD since May 31, 2006. He was once again the lijsttrekker for the Dutch general election of 2010 where his party became the biggest party. On October 8, 2010 he was appointed formateur and he already has formed his Cabinet. Rutte is the first Prime Minister of the Netherlands not from a Christian democratic party or the Labour Party as well as the first liberal to become PM since Pieter Cort van der Linden, who was Prime Minister from 1913 till 1918. He is also the first VVD PM.
Early life
Rutte attended the gymnasium, specialising in the arts from 1979 till 1985. He continued to study history at the University of Leiden until 1992, although his original ambition was to attend the conservatory and become a concert pianist. He combined his studies with a position in the board of the Youth Organisation Freedom and Democracy, the youth organisation of the VVD, of which he was chairperson between 1988 and 1991. After his studies he entered the business world, working as a manager for Unilever and Calvé. Until 1997 he was part of the human resource-department of Unilever and played a leading role in several reorganisations. Between 1993 and 1997 he was member of the national board of the VVD. Between 1997 and 2000 he was personnel manager for Van den Bergh Nederland, a subsidiary of Unilever. In 2000 he became member of the Corporate Human Resources Group. And since 2002 he was director of Human Resources for IgloMora Groep, another subsidiary of Unilever. He also served as member of the VVD candidate committee for the general election of 2002.
Politics
In 2002 Rutte was appointed State Secretary for Social Affairs and Employment in the first Balkenende cabinet, a post which he held after the general election of 2003. He was responsible for fields including bijstand (municipal welfare) and arbeidsomstandigheden (Occupational safety and health). After the 2003 elections Rutte was briefly member of the House of Representatives, between January 30 and May 27, 2003.
On June 17, 2004, Rutte was appointed State Secretary of Higher Education and Science, replacing Annette Nijs. When he was asked to replace her he had little choice: "Gerrit (Gerrit Zalm, the VVD Deputy Prime Minister) is not of the department of variables. I didn't have a choice. Furthermore, it's also very exciting". Rutte became an important figure within the VVD leadership. He was campaign manager for the 2006 municipal elections.
In office, Rutte has shown particular interest in making the Dutch higher education system more competitive internationally by trying to make it more market oriented (improving the position of students as consumers in the market for education).
