Dutchman Mark Rutte is poised to become the next Secretary-General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization next month after Romanian President Klaus Iohannis withdrew his candidacy, leaving the acting prime minister of the Netherlands as the sole runner for the position.
The Government of The Netherlands has decreed a strict lockdown until January 14 on all non-essential activities due to the spread of the coronavirus Omicron variant. A daily cap of two visitors per household has also been decreed, which will be raised to four people for Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte did not visit his 96-year-old mother for more than eight weeks until hours before her death this month due to lockdown measures in the Netherlands, his office said on Tuesday.
France and the Netherlands have joined forces to urge the European Union to enforce environmental and labor standards more forcefully with countries the bloc signs trade deals with, according to a document anticipated by the Financial Times.
British Prime Minister Theresa May on Monday started a last-minute flurry of European diplomacy that includes visits to Paris and Berlin as she prepares for a make-or-break Brexit summit. Still struggling to get her EU divorce deal through parliament, May is hoping European Union leaders will agree on Wednesday to delay Brexit for a second time to stop Britain crashing out of the bloc two days later.
The Dutch government sees Brexit not as the elephant in the room but as a giant Muppet-style monster lying on a desk. That is the picture tweeted by Foreign minister Stef Blok, with the warning: make sure Brexit doesn't sit - or lie - in your way. There is a link to an official website where Dutch firms can see the potential impact of Brexit on their business.
Holland is prepared to contribute to the Falklands/Malvinas dialogue between Argentina and UK, once Britain has definitively left the European Union, said on Tuesday foreign minister Susana Malcorra who is part of the official delegation of president Mauricio Macri state visit to the Netherlands.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Wednesday claimed a dominating parliamentary election victory over anti-Islam lawmaker Geert Wilders, who failed the year's first litmus test for populism in Europe. Provisional results with over half the votes counted suggested Rutte's party won 32 seats in the 150-member legislature, 13 more than Wilders' party, which took only third place with 19 seats. The surging CDA Christian Democrats claimed 20.
Weeks before Dutch voters go to the polls, Prime Minister Mark Rutte has said that anyone who rejects the country's values should leave. “Act normal, or go away,” he says, in a message seen as taking on the anti-immigration Freedom party currently running high in the opinion polls. Elections are taking place on 15 March.
Holland one of the few show cases of Europe with all economic indicators the envy of its fellow EU members has stalled in a political controversy while at the other end Greece sees no end to suffering in its fifth year of recession.