Mark Rutte

Biography

Mark Rutte was born in The Hague in 1967, the youngest child of a merchant family. He studied history at Leiden University, graduating in 1992, and while a student chaired the youth organisation of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD). After university he worked in human resources management for Unilever and several of its subsidiaries.

He entered national politics in 2002 as state secretary for social affairs and employment in Jan Peter Balkenende's cabinet, later moving to the education ministry with responsibility for higher education. In 2006 he won the VVD leadership election and became the party's parliamentary leader.

Under Rutte the VVD became the largest party in the 2010 election, and he took office as prime minister that October, the first liberal in the post in more than ninety years. His first cabinet fell in 2012, but he won the following election and led a second cabinet that served a full term. He remained prime minister after the 2017 and 2021 elections, although his third cabinet resigned in January 2021 over the childcare benefits scandal. His fourth cabinet collapsed in July 2023 over migration policy, and he stayed on as caretaker until mid-2024, becoming the longest-serving prime minister in Dutch history.

In October 2024 Rutte succeeded Jens Stoltenberg as Secretary General of NATO, and in 2025 he chaired the alliance's summit in The Hague.