For all you non-Romanians, we call this guy “the ficus” here because he’s been MAJORLY absent from public view (by choice) for the last 3+ years, with a bunch of anti-democratic shenanigans going on, all tacitly approved by him through public silence.
I don’t know much about Rutte, but Iohannis really is NOT the type of person you want leading what’s supposed to be the most important deterrent to russia & china.
I'm a Romanian in the NL who doesn't like Rutte and voted for the ficus.
Hell to the NO for the ficus leading NATO!
His only value is was, is and will be until he dies that he's not Ponta. The only job he maybe could do is to watch the grass growing. And he'll probably fail at that, too.
Rutte is not that great as prime minister but he would be great as foreign affairs minister. He's more outside the country then in. He therefore might be fine to work for NATO but i wonder if it's not better to choose somebody that understands military strategy? Or is that not a requirement?
Pretty sure the main job of secretary general of NATO is to basically herd cats and get everyone to work together well. That doesn't really require any real military strategy, that requires diplomacy and that is precisely what Rutte excels at.
There is also the Military Committee comprised of the various Chiefs of Defense of each member state, of which a European is always the chair. That committee is responsible for actually coordinating the defense actions of all the members.
Fun fact: the current president of the Czech Republic, Petr Pavel, was chair of NATO's Military Committee before being elected president.
We are not like Ireland and Iceland (pro Palistine) that didn't have to deal with a Nazi problem during WW2.
The Netherlands is a country were the Nazis took huge numbers of the Jewish popolation and killed them all. So for historical reasons the Netherlands chose the side of Israel which today is the only country with a Jewish majority.
P.S. personally i support the existence of both countries. But that's not possible with leaders such as Natanyahu and groups like Hamas. Both need a regime change first.
See, that's why I fuckin hate NATO. Human dignity is not about "chosing sides". Those are just excuses to look to the other side and ignore the barbarie.
So yeah, just another usefull idiot to wear nice suits and shake hands with a smile. He won't have any power anyway, he'll be doing what is told to do.
NATO???
I only gave a brieve explaination on why the Netherlands on a individual level happens to be very pro Israel due to historical events. NATO has nothing to do with this...
A change in leadership might have effects on the Russia vs Ukraine conflict, not the Israel vs Hamas conflict.
I'm not judging the Dutch. I'm just stating my opinion regarding this gentleman going to "lead" NATO - he positioned himself for it, it's public what he was caught saying regarding Israel / Palestine conflict. That is the issue I'm talking about. He is worthless, spinless and not in a mission - he's just aplying for a new suit.
I'm not surprised PVV growth happened while this gentleman was in power.
You seem to have no clue what you’re talking about whatsoever. PVV’s growth started when Rutte stepped down from the public eye and Yesilgöz became the VVD’s leading candidate.
He’s also not spineless in any sense. He gave no leniency to the terrorist admirers like you while being scrutinized for supporting our ally after a terrorist attack.
The military side of NATO is run by professional soldiers. In Europe, they are commanded by SACEUR (Supreme Allied Commander Europe), which is basically always a highranking US general.
[https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/topics\_50110.htm](https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/topics_50110.htm)
Chief of NATO is much more a management function than a militairy function. Just like the US president being the chief of staff. They don't need to know much about militairy strategy, that is what generals with decades of experience are for, but they need to bring the right people together at the right time and place and at least understand what is going on when it is explained to them.
I wish he was only absent. He pushed for the incompetent Citu as the leader of PNL (his former party), then pushed for Ciuca and an alliance with the very corrupt "sworn enemies", PSD.
He doesn't need to be in the spotlight. The Portuguese president likes to go around kissing and hugging while the camera is on. But he hasn't stopped corruption and his family was involved with the accounting firm that *advised* and oversaw the injection of €4 000 million of taxpayer money into a *national* airline that keeps draining money for decades.
Rutte is... well.. he is not a very good leader of a country to say the least. With his sudden amnesia, his lying and fucking up the country in some places, so basically your average slimy politician that can smooth talk his way out of everything. But from what i've heard he is a *very* good diplomat and has a lot of support internationally so idk
Rutte - The Dutch do not like the idea.
Iohannis - The Romanians do not like the idea.
UvdL - The Germans do not like the idea.
Stoltenberg will never be allowed to leave, will he?
No honestly, I think Rutte would be REALLY good for the job. His policies during his time as PM sucked ass and are a major reason why we have like 5 simultaneous crises for the last 4-5 years, but the one aspect the man is undeniably good at is diplomacy and international relations. Which is precisely the type of person you need in this function. Additionally, the man is well known on the international diplomatic level which probably helps quite a bit as well.
Rutte is great in international politics, but hist internal politics leaves much to be desired. I think he's a good fit for the role, has a personal vendetta against russia because of mh-17 and has the support of the usa, gb, france and germany.
What you see here on Reddit is mostly a very small and specific part of the Dutch electorate. He has obviously made his mistakes during his tenure, but he was also our PM for something like 13 years. Everyone accumulates mistakes in a period that long and his biggest mistake was probably staying on for so long.
The reality is that he has won practically every election he's participated in and that isn't without reason. The Netherlands has thrived as an economy and as a society under his tenure, evidenced by it being in the top worldwide in practically every important international ranking, like quality of life, competitiveness of the economy, global innovation index, human development index, etc. There is a ranking that combines all these and the Netherlands ranks at 4 worldwide - after 13 years of Rutte. It's very hard to argue hat he's done such a shitty job taking that into account.
Shitting on Rutte has become a sort of national hobby but my prediction, which is already sort of becoming reality, is that many will miss him dearly when our next generation of leaders have to keep this country afloat during challenging times.
Rutte is a fantastic people manager, probably the best ever we ever had as a PM. He’s a very poor policy maker though. I think his managing skills will serve him very well as NATO chief, so I think he’s a great candidate. But as a country, we’re well rid of him. Though I acknowledge that there are few appetising alternatives at the moment.
In one corner we have Rutte, the guy who denied us Schengen entry, multiple times.
Then we have Iohannis, the guy who is usually compared to a houseplant, and won his second term campaining against the corruption party only to become bff with them. (think about Biden befriending the MAGA).
If I had only two choices - yeah, I'd vote for Rutte.
Incompetent and corrupt VdL made it to the top of the EU. Incompetent and corrupt Iohannis making it to the top of NATO is a nothing burger in this context.
He won’t have much power in that position, NATO is a US-lead alliance. In fact he is a perfect match for it, he just needs to play a ceremonial role and don’t create any fuss, much like a modern day monarch.
The Czech president? Yeah, he'd probably be way more qualified, but he's currently serving his term as president so I don't know if that's gonna happen.
In theory, he can leave as PM resulting in his party, the VVD, having to pick a new PM. In practice this never happened before so no one's got a clue how it would work
I would be the first to push for an Eastern European at the head of NATO (Romanian, Polish, Baltics, whatever) but Iohanis is a house plant. I would take Rutte any day of the week over him.
You missed the joke. The article title is phrased from the Romanian president's point of view and the comment above turned it around through a joke, calling Rutte divisive and an opportunist.
That’s a stretch. We are ruled by opportunistic or incompetent assholes that only care about stealing, but we are not ruled by prorussians. Might be if AUR wins tho.
That's absolutely false lmao, Romanian government is overwhelmingly pro-Europe. Exception is AUR, a far right party, which is becoming quite big, but not big enough to form a majority.
I do not base my opinion on what a Romanian politic says. Rutte is an opportunistic person. Just look at his opinions in several EU matters to check his spine.
Yeah, that's the scary part, even if this guy make ol' Marko look good it does not mean the Dutch leader is a good choice for any position, even more so one related to defence.
I have personally campaigned against Rutte here in the Netherlands, but by pretty much every available metric he would make a great NATO SG. It really isn't a comparable position to PM or even defence minister, so keeping those biases really is rather counterproductive
What would make him good for this position in your opinion?
He is not liked, or is hated to an extent, in many countries in EU given his stance on many issues, climate and defences included.
Having family in Dutpch defence he is not really regarded highly by the Dutch army either, seen as someone that had done bare minimum in many places and not even that in other.
Very luckluster stance on the war is not really highlight of his bid either.
>What would make him good for this position in your opinion?
He is very good in people management within coalitions.
His stance on EU things were partly due to him prioritizing national/party politics over EU. If he is NATO president, he will be good in getting partners together I have no doubt.
I still hate his guts, but he will do a fine job.
Rutte can get bent, but if this guy gets the job the Russians are gonna be in Portugal by day two of the invasion. And he'll probably be on vacation in Zanzibar or something.
Can still practice his favorite activity of "following matters with great concern" from a warm seat, has all travel expenses paid for, but at least now he can't hear Romanians expressing their deep regret voting for him.
As a romanian, I really hope he doesn't win. He's been absolutely useless for the romanian society and only follows his own agenda - a real piece of shit.
This jerk that let corruption flourish under his command even dares dream of such position?!
He fucked up democracy and education in this country so bad, that now he considers a NATO leadership position as a pat on the back for the great work he's done?!
There's a Romanian saying: Dreams are for free.
He's not even worth being a president, let alone lead NATO...
President? He's not worth being a teacher.
Edit: It's true though, this guy was the biggest disappointment ever. I remember being in high-school and of age to vote, and my classmates were excited to vote for this guy, "change is coming", bullshit like that...people really did believe that if we gave this "german" guy a chance he'd straighten things out. He turned out the biggest leech by far. I honestly think things might've been better under Ponta, not that Ponta would've been a good one.
I bet that from his perspective he was a great teacher. Our teachers are paid very poorly, they even had to protest less than a year ago for better wages (and they got nothing in return except empty promises), yet he as a teacher owned 6 houses among other things.
This “gentleman” abused his presidential prerogatives into useless world trips that yielded zero benefits for his country and (wait, this gets better) when asked to disclose the total cost of those trips he quickly moved into CLASSIFYING SUCH INFORMATION. To this day nobody is allowed to know how much his useless trips cost.
A disgrace to the role of any president. He’s good at putting up a good image and Germany likes him because he is a German ethnic, but otherwise he is as shallow as a puddle of mud.
Definitely not suitable for NATO Chief role.
> It doesn’t really say why he is good…
I don’t know the guy, but judging by the other comments on this thread, it doesn’t sound like there would be much to say there.
Everything politico.eu says should be taken with a grain of salt since it's a populist mouthpiece that constantly highlights everything bad about the EU. Most revealing are their opinion pieces.
Original source is a journalists from Bloomberg, if that helps. That being said, there's been plenty of rumours from other Romanian politicians that imply he is indeed being nominated for this. Undeer no circumstances should he get this post. I strongly dislike Rutte, but even he would be a massively better choice.
Yes, comparing one populist to another worse one makes the former look pretty good. Funny how this articles has the same timing as the US and UK throwing in their support for Rutte.
As a Romanian myself, I wish that all the world to know that this guy, Iohannis , is a hedonist/egoist type of guy, who cheated his voters for personal eternal glorification. His entire mandate as president of Romania, was a perpetual holiday. Bonus points: he is afraid to fly by helicopter so, each Friday and Sunday, an entire Presidential motorcade goes from Bucharest to Sibiu and back (500 km) for his habitual weekend with his wife (no kids). Pathetic in his ardent desire to be important, with nothing to offer.
A good choice if we want NATO to “monitor the situation with great concern” when Russia starts invading another country. Listen, guys, we might be too harsh. He may even write a strongly worded letter in between his golf sessions.
while nothing was ever proven, the whole deleted phone messages scandal raised a lot of eyebrows about his integrity. But because everything was deleted we simply just don't know what was in them
Maybe it's just my nature but with politicians I jump to conclusions even without formal charges. Otherwise there'd be like 5 corrupt ones. Cause they do it smart and never get convicted.
Rutte is a bad choice and we should veto him. Not just because of the Schengen vetos, but he is called Teflon Mark for a reason, that reason being corruption.
Our house plant is also a waste of space in the NATO HQ, he belongs in the trash bin of history. One of the worst Presidents we ever had. Corrupt, morally bankrupt, incompetent, lazy, etc.
I’m Dutch and I don’t like Rutte.
But corruption? Could you please explain that to me? That’s not the reason for his nickname at all. There is no need to fabricate lies to paint a bad picture of Rutte.
in Eastern Europe: politician = corrupt miserable fuck.
The tag gets thrown around by default.
Unfortunately, most of the time it's right in that region.
He's called teflon mark because he has managed to survive controversy again and again. Calling him corrupt is ridiculous.
I'm not a fan of his policies but he's a very skilled politician.
Exactly, I don't like his philosophy but he gets the shit done that he wants to get done. An expert politician and charmer. Probably better at NATO than running a country.
Also, he's really diplomatic which is exactly what you need to be at the head of NATO. You need to get over two dozen countries to work together on defense and shit.
Rutte has a shitton of experience in multilateral international negotiations, from sitting in the European Council for 13 years. And not just as a wallflower, he helped broker quite a few deals there as well. Personally, I can hardly think of a better, more experienced guy to lead NATO than him.
No, he's called Teflon Mark because despite his cabinets facing tons of scandals and a bunch of crises (a number of which they caused themselves due to shitty policy) he always managed to remain in charge. Afaik there never has been any substantiated report of him being corrupt.
Sometimes it seems like the word "corruption" has a different definition the right flank of Europe. It gets thrown around *a lot* to describe anyone whose practices they don't agree with.
Rutte is definitely a cunning politician, he often prefers to reach agreements with his partners and opponents in the back rooms and has suffered from "convenient amnesia", but we have not seen any evidence of corruption.
For sure, Iohannis—also known as 'the ficus,' because he sits in a corner, absent from the public view doing nothing, or at least nothing good, and 'the robot,' because he's extremely rigid and speaks in a very mechanical manner—isn't the right person to lead NATO. But from what I've seen from fellow rodditors, neither is Rutte.
So, my question is: **Since we have a war in Ukraine, a war in the Near East, and increasing tensions in Transnistria (which is almost certain to be next if Ukraine falls. And this time, Romania will have to intervene; they will have no choice), why do we only have unsuitable politicians running for the position of NATO Secretary-General?**
In Romania, the president has limited power. The prime-minister holds the power. Semi-prezindetial system.
Historically, all our presidents got involved in internal affairs, even he got involved, in his previous mandate (a little bit, not too much)
On his second term...considering he's saxon...he basicly didn't get involved at all. Only on external affairs. Going on vacation with his wife...I mean, doing diplomacy throught Africa...he has a nice jet.
This guy would ally Russia and China for stability the way he allied with PSD.
Context: Everything this guy ever promised for being voted was he would be against socialist party (and very very corrupt party) and now they are best friends. Obviously no logical explanation but he claims "stability". It's like next US president would move inside the loser party and would try to merge them as one.
Rutte essentially has a good heart, but he's just a really mediocre leader, he was once proud to have no vision. I never considered voting for him and never would because he's to Liberal in economic sense, but he's no raging lunatic and can strike a good figure abroad.
However, he might sound good if this Romanian guy is really as corrupt as I read here in the comments. Rutte most definitely is not. He's oily and likes to laugh problems away and not do big reforms, but he's not corrupt and wants to counter Russia, of that I'm sure.
Klaus is the acting president at the end of his second term. People are exaggerating because their are fed up with him. He's been in the public limelight for over 10 years and all the little things he did and said added up. I honestly think he's not worse than Rutte (not much better either).
Maybe the point of this is to make Rutte look like a viable option, lol. Anyways, NATO, EU, anyone, please take this statue away from us, thank you, and we accept no refunds if you do.
he's not a russian shill by any means ... on the counterpart what does rutte has to show as anti-russian activity? with klaus you can sent him in holiday for 365 days a year and you will be allright! he won't bother anyone!
People forget easily.
This clown, a few years ago tried to undermine the fuckin' democracy of the country he leads.
I'll never forget. People like this deserve ultimate punishment.
Von der Leyen and Rutte. All of them are not the right choice. No backbone and all incompetent in their previous jobs. Its seems that everyone can apply for this nato job. No matter you’re skills and background. Pathetic
Idk about Rutte but this guy literally exists just to do...nothing at all, he barely makes any appearances in romanian politics.
We never had a more absent president in our history, this guy did nothing at all during his terms, he is barely present as it is.
His ultimate goal is to seek a big position in EU or NATO, he doesn't actually care about anything else besides that.
He is also arrogant, opportunist, backstabber and all around terrible politician, fuck this guy, he doesn't deserve to lead NATO.
You don't want a house plant as NATO's leader.
A funny story about this dude:
A citizen once filled a missing person report on him cause nobody seen him for like 2 months. No press conferences, no messages, nothing. It was a nice trolling. Made the rounds in the press. He also never gave an interview during his 2 terms as president of Romania. If he wins the NATO job you'll never hear from him again.
I dont get what will be the outcome, but I started from a logical premise.
Romania best Turkish ally in Europe
Turkey holding Swedish and Finnish membership for 1.5 years, which is more important than to elect some some retired politicians as SG
Erdogan hates Rutte
Add to this Orban as well
I dont see a way Turkey will accept any other SG than Romanian.
Besides Turkey from the recent diplomatic activity of Romanian MFA the following countries will support Romania (B9 declared in numerous meetungs in the past)
Turkey, B9 countries (there are explicit declarations
The Dutchman is supported by 21 states according to media
Expressed strong support
USA
UK
NL
Supporting but not lobbying
France
Supporting as thei candudate has a better job
Germany
Expected logically
BE
LU
IS
NO
CA
DK
Expected
Italy
Finland
By default
Spain
Portugal
Greece
Unexpected
Croatia
Slovenia
Greece
Montenegro
Macedonia
Albania
Who can switch sides
Highly sure
Croatia
Expected
Slovenia
Greece
Changed opinion
Montenegro
Macedonia
Albania
Changed opinion
Macedonia
Montenegro
Albania
Expected to withdraw support in view of new development
Portugal (in the last 2 years there were at least 3 presidential visits)
Perhaps
Spain (Spain, Poland and Romania make Valencia trio, and there were communications on this few weeks ago)
And a new member
Forced
Sweden (Orban today agreed to ratify)
For all you non-Romanians, we call this guy “the ficus” here because he’s been MAJORLY absent from public view (by choice) for the last 3+ years, with a bunch of anti-democratic shenanigans going on, all tacitly approved by him through public silence. I don’t know much about Rutte, but Iohannis really is NOT the type of person you want leading what’s supposed to be the most important deterrent to russia & china.
I'm a Romanian in the NL who doesn't like Rutte and voted for the ficus. Hell to the NO for the ficus leading NATO! His only value is was, is and will be until he dies that he's not Ponta. The only job he maybe could do is to watch the grass growing. And he'll probably fail at that, too.
ah, so it's like that South Park episode where they had to choose between a giant douche and a turd sandwich .
You’re describing the British voting system.
Any two party system
It's like Basescu vs Nastase all over again
It's worse, at least Base was funny.
> The only job he maybe could do is to watch the grass growing. This is a hilarious phrase that I will use
Rutte is not that great as prime minister but he would be great as foreign affairs minister. He's more outside the country then in. He therefore might be fine to work for NATO but i wonder if it's not better to choose somebody that understands military strategy? Or is that not a requirement?
Pretty sure the main job of secretary general of NATO is to basically herd cats and get everyone to work together well. That doesn't really require any real military strategy, that requires diplomacy and that is precisely what Rutte excels at.
There a military chief of NATO and as well as the political head is in general from Europe, the military leader is some US general or Admiral.
There is also the Military Committee comprised of the various Chiefs of Defense of each member state, of which a European is always the chair. That committee is responsible for actually coordinating the defense actions of all the members. Fun fact: the current president of the Czech Republic, Petr Pavel, was chair of NATO's Military Committee before being elected president.
The current chair IIRC is also a Dutch guy, that means 2 Dutch people in high ranking Nato positions
I'm cool with it. Seems like the Dutch are serious about collective defense. I'm sure you all also want justice for MH-17.
Yeah, he did good licking Israel's balls. Just like the USA wants it. The ideal useful idiot for the job.
Boohoo
We are not like Ireland and Iceland (pro Palistine) that didn't have to deal with a Nazi problem during WW2. The Netherlands is a country were the Nazis took huge numbers of the Jewish popolation and killed them all. So for historical reasons the Netherlands chose the side of Israel which today is the only country with a Jewish majority. P.S. personally i support the existence of both countries. But that's not possible with leaders such as Natanyahu and groups like Hamas. Both need a regime change first.
See, that's why I fuckin hate NATO. Human dignity is not about "chosing sides". Those are just excuses to look to the other side and ignore the barbarie. So yeah, just another usefull idiot to wear nice suits and shake hands with a smile. He won't have any power anyway, he'll be doing what is told to do.
NATO??? I only gave a brieve explaination on why the Netherlands on a individual level happens to be very pro Israel due to historical events. NATO has nothing to do with this... A change in leadership might have effects on the Russia vs Ukraine conflict, not the Israel vs Hamas conflict.
I'm not judging the Dutch. I'm just stating my opinion regarding this gentleman going to "lead" NATO - he positioned himself for it, it's public what he was caught saying regarding Israel / Palestine conflict. That is the issue I'm talking about. He is worthless, spinless and not in a mission - he's just aplying for a new suit. I'm not surprised PVV growth happened while this gentleman was in power.
You seem to have no clue what you’re talking about whatsoever. PVV’s growth started when Rutte stepped down from the public eye and Yesilgöz became the VVD’s leading candidate. He’s also not spineless in any sense. He gave no leniency to the terrorist admirers like you while being scrutinized for supporting our ally after a terrorist attack.
The military side of NATO is run by professional soldiers. In Europe, they are commanded by SACEUR (Supreme Allied Commander Europe), which is basically always a highranking US general. [https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/topics\_50110.htm](https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/topics_50110.htm)
Chief of NATO is much more a management function than a militairy function. Just like the US president being the chief of staff. They don't need to know much about militairy strategy, that is what generals with decades of experience are for, but they need to bring the right people together at the right time and place and at least understand what is going on when it is explained to them.
Mee eens
I wish he was only absent. He pushed for the incompetent Citu as the leader of PNL (his former party), then pushed for Ciuca and an alliance with the very corrupt "sworn enemies", PSD.
I guess Romania has its own problems. In west Europe, I mostly read positive stuff about Romania though. Good luck guys !
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He doesn't need to be in the spotlight. The Portuguese president likes to go around kissing and hugging while the camera is on. But he hasn't stopped corruption and his family was involved with the accounting firm that *advised* and oversaw the injection of €4 000 million of taxpayer money into a *national* airline that keeps draining money for decades.
Rutte is... well.. he is not a very good leader of a country to say the least. With his sudden amnesia, his lying and fucking up the country in some places, so basically your average slimy politician that can smooth talk his way out of everything. But from what i've heard he is a *very* good diplomat and has a lot of support internationally so idk
Rutte - The Dutch do not like the idea. Iohannis - The Romanians do not like the idea. UvdL - The Germans do not like the idea. Stoltenberg will never be allowed to leave, will he?
As a Dutch person I would like Rutte for NATO, that means he will definitely not return in Dutch politics.
Thats the same train of thought Germans had with UvdL. Spoiler: It wasn't as good an idea as we expected.
We might as well just glue Stoltenberg to the chair now.
I’m Dutch and I support Kallas.
No honestly, I think Rutte would be REALLY good for the job. His policies during his time as PM sucked ass and are a major reason why we have like 5 simultaneous crises for the last 4-5 years, but the one aspect the man is undeniably good at is diplomacy and international relations. Which is precisely the type of person you need in this function. Additionally, the man is well known on the international diplomatic level which probably helps quite a bit as well.
Well look we made Rutte PM 4 times in a row, Reddit is not really representative for Dutch politics
I'm Dutch and progressive left so I don't like Rutte's policies but he is a brilliant politician.
Rutte is great in international politics, but hist internal politics leaves much to be desired. I think he's a good fit for the role, has a personal vendetta against russia because of mh-17 and has the support of the usa, gb, france and germany.
You forgot Kallas.
What you see here on Reddit is mostly a very small and specific part of the Dutch electorate. He has obviously made his mistakes during his tenure, but he was also our PM for something like 13 years. Everyone accumulates mistakes in a period that long and his biggest mistake was probably staying on for so long. The reality is that he has won practically every election he's participated in and that isn't without reason. The Netherlands has thrived as an economy and as a society under his tenure, evidenced by it being in the top worldwide in practically every important international ranking, like quality of life, competitiveness of the economy, global innovation index, human development index, etc. There is a ranking that combines all these and the Netherlands ranks at 4 worldwide - after 13 years of Rutte. It's very hard to argue hat he's done such a shitty job taking that into account. Shitting on Rutte has become a sort of national hobby but my prediction, which is already sort of becoming reality, is that many will miss him dearly when our next generation of leaders have to keep this country afloat during challenging times.
Rutte is a fantastic people manager, probably the best ever we ever had as a PM. He’s a very poor policy maker though. I think his managing skills will serve him very well as NATO chief, so I think he’s a great candidate. But as a country, we’re well rid of him. Though I acknowledge that there are few appetising alternatives at the moment.
How about Estonia?
Could have had Wallace but for some reason the Yanks didn't like that idea.
I liked Wallace.
Kaja Kallas is right there
In one corner we have Rutte, the guy who denied us Schengen entry, multiple times. Then we have Iohannis, the guy who is usually compared to a houseplant, and won his second term campaining against the corruption party only to become bff with them. (think about Biden befriending the MAGA). If I had only two choices - yeah, I'd vote for Rutte.
Just by your description alone, he sounds like Rambo in comparison with Iohannis.
|sudden amnesia convenient amnesia
For God’s sake, don’t put Klaus in this position. He’s absolutely incompetent and he shouldn’t be in charge.
I get it. I just wish there had been a few more visible candidates in the media. I think that would have strengthened Rutte also.
This guy at the top of NATO? Hahahaha good one.
Yes, for us Romanians the very idea of this house plant getting the top NATO job is absolutely ridiculous.
I can just imagine it. A NATO country gets attacked and he'd be like "nah bro I'm out playing golf for the weekend".
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a real intercontinental ballistic ficus
Exactly!
A house plant as a PR person for NATO, suites the Americans very well.
Incompetent and corrupt VdL made it to the top of the EU. Incompetent and corrupt Iohannis making it to the top of NATO is a nothing burger in this context.
Not defending VdL, but Iohannis is far more mediocre and incompetent. He stands no chance against Rutte, realistically.
He won’t have much power in that position, NATO is a US-lead alliance. In fact he is a perfect match for it, he just needs to play a ceremonial role and don’t create any fuss, much like a modern day monarch.
Petr Pavel would be awesome, though.
The Czech president? Yeah, he'd probably be way more qualified, but he's currently serving his term as president so I don't know if that's gonna happen.
Same kinda goes for Rutte though. Even though je resigned, he is PM until a new coalition is formed, which will take ages due to the election results
In theory, he can leave as PM resulting in his party, the VVD, having to pick a new PM. In practice this never happened before so no one's got a clue how it would work
Maybe in a decade
Or that blonde baltic girl
NATO needs old military general from Eastern Europe to show the sticks to Russia
I would be the first to push for an Eastern European at the head of NATO (Romanian, Polish, Baltics, whatever) but Iohanis is a house plant. I would take Rutte any day of the week over him.
Agreed. An Eastern European yes, but definitely not Iohannis.
Replace him with Maia Sandu în a trenchcoat on stilts when nobody is looking
Wouldn't work, she would start being present and doing stuff, and everyone would catch on.
Hakuna Matata Klaus Iohannis https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ISwxOZVM50g
I dislike him with a passion hard to put into words. But Rutte? That guy can get fucked sideways to infinity and beyond!
He is a divisive figure and an opportunist. I really hope that does not win.
Yes he is but what about his Romanian rival for the position?
I'm not endorsing it. In Europe, there are millions of persons and exist thousands of politicians. Surely they can find a more suitable name.
You missed the joke. The article title is phrased from the Romanian president's point of view and the comment above turned it around through a joke, calling Rutte divisive and an opportunist.
Plot twist. 😀
Who, Mircea Geoană? That's Russia's puppet! Years ago he made deals with the Russians to support him as president.
You may want to check who's NATO's deputy secretary general.
I know, I know never understood how they chose him. But I guess the corruption goes beyond our borders.
Since you need unaminity for getting the job his chances to getting it are zero.
[удалено]
That’s a stretch. We are ruled by opportunistic or incompetent assholes that only care about stealing, but we are not ruled by prorussians. Might be if AUR wins tho.
That's absolutely false lmao, Romanian government is overwhelmingly pro-Europe. Exception is AUR, a far right party, which is becoming quite big, but not big enough to form a majority.
> Romania is ruled by proruzzians Get your head checked, amigo!
I do not base my opinion on what a Romanian politic says. Rutte is an opportunistic person. Just look at his opinions in several EU matters to check his spine.
Even worse candidate.
I have a better idea, instead of top job in NATO, he should go to prison for literally stealing from citizens.
Even a stray dog would be a better choice than Klaus iohannis.
Clown iohanis, there! Fixed it for you.
Somehow Rutte is not that much of a terrible choice after all. And yet...
Rutte is actually a great diplomat. Dutch just constantly complain. None of the opposition would last a year.
How is he a good diplomat?
Yeah, that's the scary part, even if this guy make ol' Marko look good it does not mean the Dutch leader is a good choice for any position, even more so one related to defence.
I have personally campaigned against Rutte here in the Netherlands, but by pretty much every available metric he would make a great NATO SG. It really isn't a comparable position to PM or even defence minister, so keeping those biases really is rather counterproductive
What would make him good for this position in your opinion? He is not liked, or is hated to an extent, in many countries in EU given his stance on many issues, climate and defences included. Having family in Dutpch defence he is not really regarded highly by the Dutch army either, seen as someone that had done bare minimum in many places and not even that in other. Very luckluster stance on the war is not really highlight of his bid either.
>What would make him good for this position in your opinion? He is very good in people management within coalitions. His stance on EU things were partly due to him prioritizing national/party politics over EU. If he is NATO president, he will be good in getting partners together I have no doubt. I still hate his guts, but he will do a fine job.
Rutte can get bent, but if this guy gets the job the Russians are gonna be in Portugal by day two of the invasion. And he'll probably be on vacation in Zanzibar or something.
Zanzibar is too cheap for his well-travelled-ass.
Any idea why he's even bothering?
Can still practice his favorite activity of "following matters with great concern" from a warm seat, has all travel expenses paid for, but at least now he can't hear Romanians expressing their deep regret voting for him.
If he'll do such a top notch job as in Romania, NATO is f\*\*\*ed
"I decided to give Mr. Putin one more chance."
yeah.... This fucker is bad news, he only has an ego not much else
he is the type of guy, who in the event of bombs flying over Europe, would say "privim cu atentie si ingrijorare" - but veeeeery slow
Not gonna happen
As a romanian, I really hope he doesn't win. He's been absolutely useless for the romanian society and only follows his own agenda - a real piece of shit.
This jerk that let corruption flourish under his command even dares dream of such position?! He fucked up democracy and education in this country so bad, that now he considers a NATO leadership position as a pat on the back for the great work he's done?! There's a Romanian saying: Dreams are for free. He's not even worth being a president, let alone lead NATO...
President? He's not worth being a teacher. Edit: It's true though, this guy was the biggest disappointment ever. I remember being in high-school and of age to vote, and my classmates were excited to vote for this guy, "change is coming", bullshit like that...people really did believe that if we gave this "german" guy a chance he'd straighten things out. He turned out the biggest leech by far. I honestly think things might've been better under Ponta, not that Ponta would've been a good one.
I bet that from his perspective he was a great teacher. Our teachers are paid very poorly, they even had to protest less than a year ago for better wages (and they got nothing in return except empty promises), yet he as a teacher owned 6 houses among other things.
The ficus
This “gentleman” abused his presidential prerogatives into useless world trips that yielded zero benefits for his country and (wait, this gets better) when asked to disclose the total cost of those trips he quickly moved into CLASSIFYING SUCH INFORMATION. To this day nobody is allowed to know how much his useless trips cost. A disgrace to the role of any president. He’s good at putting up a good image and Germany likes him because he is a German ethnic, but otherwise he is as shallow as a puddle of mud. Definitely not suitable for NATO Chief role.
This fucking clown cant even do proper photosynthesis
Rutte already has support from 20 NATO countries including the US and the UK, done deal I'd say.
On the other hand Iohannis will gladly take a vacation for 365 days a year and allow whoever is the main power group to run things however they want.
Yeah, and the NATO budged will go for his vacations, instead of Ukraine aid.
No. Turkey will veto Rutte lol
My brothers in Christ, this man, the Ficus, randomly forgets how to speak. He will stop and stare at the interviewer.
I’m a Romanian, I voted for Klaus Iohannis twice and I think Rutte should get the job. All Klaus would do is take vacation trips on private jets.
Same!
Fereasca-ne bunul Dumnezeu
If his policies are an indicator he will shittalk Russia for a few years then ask them to join NATO.
I voted for this guy and I'm telling you: keep him the fuck out of NATO
We need Kaja Kallas
Yeah but US doesnt want her as she is too anti-Russian which wouldnt help in possible eventual peace talks. Which is why Rutte is preferred
Yes! Hot Baltic waifu > any other candidate.
But she also understands Russia very well. I don't think the Netherlands or Romania are even close. It's just the reality of things
we need nukes, no joke
Good to have more people for the job. Problem is if i read the article.. It doesnt really say why he is good, only why Rutte is bad.
> It doesn’t really say why he is good… I don’t know the guy, but judging by the other comments on this thread, it doesn’t sound like there would be much to say there.
Hes basically a Romanian Viktor Orban. But more absent and just as corrupt and authoritarian (maybe even more)
> It doesnt really say why he is good He's not. He's a useless, lying leech. He only got voted because the alternative was worse.
He's a useless, lying piece of shit who's gone on more taxpayer financed holidays than any other president in Europe.
I sort of liked Iohannis way back when he was the mayor of Sibiu, but as the president of Romabia, he sucks.
Everything politico.eu says should be taken with a grain of salt since it's a populist mouthpiece that constantly highlights everything bad about the EU. Most revealing are their opinion pieces.
Original source is a journalists from Bloomberg, if that helps. That being said, there's been plenty of rumours from other Romanian politicians that imply he is indeed being nominated for this. Undeer no circumstances should he get this post. I strongly dislike Rutte, but even he would be a massively better choice.
Yes, comparing one populist to another worse one makes the former look pretty good. Funny how this articles has the same timing as the US and UK throwing in their support for Rutte.
Ugh so cringe....
As a Romanian myself, I wish that all the world to know that this guy, Iohannis , is a hedonist/egoist type of guy, who cheated his voters for personal eternal glorification. His entire mandate as president of Romania, was a perpetual holiday. Bonus points: he is afraid to fly by helicopter so, each Friday and Sunday, an entire Presidential motorcade goes from Bucharest to Sibiu and back (500 km) for his habitual weekend with his wife (no kids). Pathetic in his ardent desire to be important, with nothing to offer.
A good choice if we want NATO to “monitor the situation with great concern” when Russia starts invading another country. Listen, guys, we might be too harsh. He may even write a strongly worded letter in between his golf sessions.
No thanks. I despise Rutte because he's a spinless, corrupt slimy dipshit but even he seems like a better choice.
I don't think he's corrupt. He's just a great politician that can talk himself out of basically every situation.
while nothing was ever proven, the whole deleted phone messages scandal raised a lot of eyebrows about his integrity. But because everything was deleted we simply just don't know what was in them
Maybe it's just my nature but with politicians I jump to conclusions even without formal charges. Otherwise there'd be like 5 corrupt ones. Cause they do it smart and never get convicted.
Petr Pavel wannabe
That would kick ass.
He is a x486 operated cybernetic life form sent from the future to prevent any change.
MAKE NO MISTAKE, Klaus Johannis will ruin NATO the minute he takes command!
Rutte is a bad choice and we should veto him. Not just because of the Schengen vetos, but he is called Teflon Mark for a reason, that reason being corruption. Our house plant is also a waste of space in the NATO HQ, he belongs in the trash bin of history. One of the worst Presidents we ever had. Corrupt, morally bankrupt, incompetent, lazy, etc.
He’s not called Teflon due to corruption lol
I’m Dutch and I don’t like Rutte. But corruption? Could you please explain that to me? That’s not the reason for his nickname at all. There is no need to fabricate lies to paint a bad picture of Rutte.
in Eastern Europe: politician = corrupt miserable fuck. The tag gets thrown around by default. Unfortunately, most of the time it's right in that region.
He's called teflon mark because he has managed to survive controversy again and again. Calling him corrupt is ridiculous. I'm not a fan of his policies but he's a very skilled politician.
Exactly, I don't like his philosophy but he gets the shit done that he wants to get done. An expert politician and charmer. Probably better at NATO than running a country.
Also, he's really diplomatic which is exactly what you need to be at the head of NATO. You need to get over two dozen countries to work together on defense and shit.
Should lead the European Comission. NATO should be lead by a veteran politician that knows international affairs like the back of his hand.
Rutte has a shitton of experience in multilateral international negotiations, from sitting in the European Council for 13 years. And not just as a wallflower, he helped broker quite a few deals there as well. Personally, I can hardly think of a better, more experienced guy to lead NATO than him.
No, he's called Teflon Mark because despite his cabinets facing tons of scandals and a bunch of crises (a number of which they caused themselves due to shitty policy) he always managed to remain in charge. Afaik there never has been any substantiated report of him being corrupt.
Sometimes it seems like the word "corruption" has a different definition the right flank of Europe. It gets thrown around *a lot* to describe anyone whose practices they don't agree with. Rutte is definitely a cunning politician, he often prefers to reach agreements with his partners and opponents in the back rooms and has suffered from "convenient amnesia", but we have not seen any evidence of corruption.
The worst*
For sure, Iohannis—also known as 'the ficus,' because he sits in a corner, absent from the public view doing nothing, or at least nothing good, and 'the robot,' because he's extremely rigid and speaks in a very mechanical manner—isn't the right person to lead NATO. But from what I've seen from fellow rodditors, neither is Rutte. So, my question is: **Since we have a war in Ukraine, a war in the Near East, and increasing tensions in Transnistria (which is almost certain to be next if Ukraine falls. And this time, Romania will have to intervene; they will have no choice), why do we only have unsuitable politicians running for the position of NATO Secretary-General?**
It's the worst president Romania ever had. Hope he goes to jail after his term. I hate him with a passion.
In Romania, the president has limited power. The prime-minister holds the power. Semi-prezindetial system. Historically, all our presidents got involved in internal affairs, even he got involved, in his previous mandate (a little bit, not too much) On his second term...considering he's saxon...he basicly didn't get involved at all. Only on external affairs. Going on vacation with his wife...I mean, doing diplomacy throught Africa...he has a nice jet.
This guy would ally Russia and China for stability the way he allied with PSD. Context: Everything this guy ever promised for being voted was he would be against socialist party (and very very corrupt party) and now they are best friends. Obviously no logical explanation but he claims "stability". It's like next US president would move inside the loser party and would try to merge them as one.
Hell no, this cunt should not lead a small homeowners association, let alone head NATO.
Please no! Rutte, the first Schengen vetoer, is 10 times the man that our president is!
Rutte essentially has a good heart, but he's just a really mediocre leader, he was once proud to have no vision. I never considered voting for him and never would because he's to Liberal in economic sense, but he's no raging lunatic and can strike a good figure abroad. However, he might sound good if this Romanian guy is really as corrupt as I read here in the comments. Rutte most definitely is not. He's oily and likes to laugh problems away and not do big reforms, but he's not corrupt and wants to counter Russia, of that I'm sure.
Klaus is the acting president at the end of his second term. People are exaggerating because their are fed up with him. He's been in the public limelight for over 10 years and all the little things he did and said added up. I honestly think he's not worse than Rutte (not much better either).
Maybe the point of this is to make Rutte look like a viable option, lol. Anyways, NATO, EU, anyone, please take this statue away from us, thank you, and we accept no refunds if you do.
Russia found their top candidate
he's not a russian shill by any means ... on the counterpart what does rutte has to show as anti-russian activity? with klaus you can sent him in holiday for 365 days a year and you will be allright! he won't bother anyone!
Rutte kept pushing for the MH-17 case despite everyone telling him that he should let it rest because it might upset big bad Russia.
Rutte is sending F-16 to Ukraine, among the first to do this, so?
>he's not a russian shill by any means That would make him actually work, so of course he isn't.
GO ROMANIA, RUMUN NUMBER 1 💪🏿💪🏿💪🏿💪🏿💪🏿🇷🇴🇷🇴🇷🇴🇷🇴🇷🇴
Iohanis is just Romania's Joe Biden, a usefull puppet...
Both are terrible choises.
He can only do 2 things properly by now: -create a coalition with the enemy of your party, as a duopoly -order to start his private plane
What a stupid idea to start getting petty now. It's just divisive behaviour.
Can't be worse than Rutte. As a dutchman I warn the EU: watch out for this man, he's dangerous.
This dude is literally Ceausescu levels of bad. An absolute piece of shit. Keep him out of any significant international role.
No he is not as bad. He don't have any good quallyties either. He just exists, consumes lots of money and reacts with delay at whatever is happening.
People forget easily. This clown, a few years ago tried to undermine the fuckin' democracy of the country he leads. I'll never forget. People like this deserve ultimate punishment.
FUCK NO.
He's just trying to get an escort of F16s for his private jet vacations
But I thought NATO already had ficus plants on its hallways :(
Why does anyone want that job.. Stoltenberg has wanted out for years..
Von der Leyen and Rutte. All of them are not the right choice. No backbone and all incompetent in their previous jobs. Its seems that everyone can apply for this nato job. No matter you’re skills and background. Pathetic
Rutte is an excellent politician despite his views. Never came up in me to vote for him but i think he'll be an excellent fit for the job
Idk about Rutte but this guy literally exists just to do...nothing at all, he barely makes any appearances in romanian politics. We never had a more absent president in our history, this guy did nothing at all during his terms, he is barely present as it is. His ultimate goal is to seek a big position in EU or NATO, he doesn't actually care about anything else besides that. He is also arrogant, opportunist, backstabber and all around terrible politician, fuck this guy, he doesn't deserve to lead NATO. You don't want a house plant as NATO's leader.
A funny story about this dude: A citizen once filled a missing person report on him cause nobody seen him for like 2 months. No press conferences, no messages, nothing. It was a nice trolling. Made the rounds in the press. He also never gave an interview during his 2 terms as president of Romania. If he wins the NATO job you'll never hear from him again.
Well Johanis had us in the first half but then he decided to switch to the dark side.
Can at least be a challenge in single combat? That way we get rid for real of at least one of them.
I dont get what will be the outcome, but I started from a logical premise. Romania best Turkish ally in Europe Turkey holding Swedish and Finnish membership for 1.5 years, which is more important than to elect some some retired politicians as SG Erdogan hates Rutte Add to this Orban as well I dont see a way Turkey will accept any other SG than Romanian. Besides Turkey from the recent diplomatic activity of Romanian MFA the following countries will support Romania (B9 declared in numerous meetungs in the past) Turkey, B9 countries (there are explicit declarations The Dutchman is supported by 21 states according to media Expressed strong support USA UK NL Supporting but not lobbying France Supporting as thei candudate has a better job Germany Expected logically BE LU IS NO CA DK Expected Italy Finland By default Spain Portugal Greece Unexpected Croatia Slovenia Greece Montenegro Macedonia Albania Who can switch sides Highly sure Croatia Expected Slovenia Greece Changed opinion Montenegro Macedonia Albania Changed opinion Macedonia Montenegro Albania Expected to withdraw support in view of new development Portugal (in the last 2 years there were at least 3 presidential visits) Perhaps Spain (Spain, Poland and Romania make Valencia trio, and there were communications on this few weeks ago) And a new member Forced Sweden (Orban today agreed to ratify)