I think he’s the image of a perceived broader issue in Dutch politics; that people are more human than we’d like to believe and we really get to see that now.

Our political system is getting too ‘casual’, mirroring the low hierarchy and down-to-earth vibe in our society. This removes a basic form of respect which can be useful in social structures, while still trying to maintain the core democratic values; leading to everyone has a say, stuff takes long to achieve, especially with the spread of parties we now have.

The result is that our system cannot keep up with the speedy changes of our world with stuff like covid, AI algorithms, nitrogen-crisis, housing, social media and fails to have a concrete debate where people actually listen to each other while together building on a solid solution (without tackling the other when the opportunity arises).

The VVD (party of Rutte) had made some questionable choices in the past, which did not take issues of the left into account and seems to have caused issues in the long run which have stayed unaddressed for too long. Quite some big groups like farmers, students, Groningers, parents with aid and fugitives have been put in situations with a lot of hardship / uncertainty for too long. In addition, people began too question his trustworthiness due to his way of ‘forgetting’ important parts of conversations, removing messages from his old Nokia ‘as it was full’ and some suspicious notes during the formation of the latest government. Now quite some things have blown up and Mark Rutte is the face of all that, and of course formally responsible.

Personally I don’t think he’s that bad, he just has different beliefs and priorities in what he wants for the Netherlands, which is fair. I think his view is more externally oriented (how to keep The Netherlands stable in the competition with other countries, with the focus on keeping us a nice place for big companies). The internal affairs have been brushed off too much in my opinion. As a person he was known to be quite likeable in the past though. In debates he still comes across as reasonable to me and he’s got a good presence when working on an international level.

Long story short, I think he’s survived quite long, as people still see him as capable to manage a stressful job without losing face internationally. But too much build-up of negativity is chasing him, and society is more vocal than ever.