The previous coalition in The Hague burst recently because of a dispute over asylum policy. Now Frans Timmermans joins in.
The Vice-President of the European Commission, Frans Timmermans, wants to become Prime Minister of the Netherlands.
The 62-year-old will appear in the early parliamentary elections in his home country in November as the top candidate of a new red-green alliance, as Timmermans announced on TV channel NOS. His social democratic party and the green party Groenlinks had decided just a few days ago to compete for the first time with a joint list.
Timmermans is considered the preferred candidate for both parties. The formal decision on the joint top candidate should not be announced until August. Then Timmermans also wants to leave the EU Commission.
Response of the EU Commission
The social democrat has been in Brussels for almost ten years. Previously he was Dutch Foreign Minister. The EU Commission said that the successor to a resigning commissioner from the same member state must be regulated in principle.
Since Commissioners are politicians, it is only natural that they would want to get involved in national politics from time to time, it said. “Here, what needs to be done depends on the nature of their involvement in national politics,” said a Commission spokesman. In the past, a commissioner would have been released from office if they ran for office in their home country.
The previous centre-right coalition in The Hague collapsed in early July over a dispute over asylum policy. The right-liberal Prime Minister Mark Rutte announced that he would leave politics.
Source: Stern
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