“We need someone with international experience, able to negotiate and reach out to people,” Rutte said.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte announced today that he is in favor of the nomination of Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra to succeed European Commissioner for Climate Action Frans Timmermans, as the latter has left Brussels to head the EU’s ballot. Social Democrats and the Greens in the early November parliamentary elections.
“I think we have a good candidate in (Bopke) Hoekstra,” Rutte, who has been managing current affairs since the coalition government he led resigned in July over “insurmountable” differences over Dutch immigration policy.
“We need someone with international experience, able to negotiate and reach out to people,” Rutte said.
At 47, the Christian democrat Wopke Hoekstra has on his resume a long political career in The Hague but also a series of fights with southern European countries and France.
Minister of Finance and then Minister of Foreign Affairs in the third and fourth governments of Prime Minister Mark Rutte (liberal right), Hoekstra gained a significant presence on the national and European stage.
As finance minister, he was ‘distinguished’ for his harsh and sometimes out-of-place criticisms of the fiscal management of southern European countries, which he later said lacked “empathy”.
According to Dutch media, Hoekstra will meet European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Tuesday. The European Parliament will also have to decide on his candidacy.
Source :Skai
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