DECRYPTION – The arrival of a centrist pro-Europe in Finance bodes well for Emmanuel Macron’s projects.
When the twenty-seven European countries negotiated in July 2020 the historic post-Covid recovery plan to 750 billion euros, the resistance of Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, at the head of a handful of “frugal” states, had dragged the negotiations on a razor’s edge for four days and four nights. The rejection of the principle of pooled debt for the benefit of States more affected by the crisis had been hard to overcome.
Read alsoNetherlands: Mark Rutte leaves for a fourth term
A pandemic and an election later, here is the same Mark Rutte at the head of a coalition with an ambitious program both in terms of public spending and European cooperation. A change of tone embodied by the appointment as Minister of Finance of Sigrid Kaag, leader of the centrist pro-European Democrats 66 (D66) party, an ally of En Marche! within the Renew group in the Strasbourg Parliament, which has become the second Dutch political force behind Rutte’s VVD. A stark contrast to the champion of budgetary orthodoxy Wopke Hoekstra, who…
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