THE HAGUE — Frans Timmermans rose to the head of European Union politics.
However it was his personal Brussels legacy that sabotaged his try to defeat the far proper.
Timmermans resigned because the chief of the GreenLeft-Labor alliance Wednesday evening after a surprising underperformance within the Dutch normal election, with the celebration dropping 5 seats for the reason that final election and ending up in fourth place.
“It’s clear that I, for no matter cause, couldn’t persuade folks to vote for us,” Timmermans stated in a speech in Rotterdam after the exit polls have been revealed Wednesday evening. “It’s time that I take a step again and switch the main of our motion to the following technology.”
The pan-European Social gathering of European Socialists thought-about Timmermans dwelling proof that progressive, left-wing politics are in for a comeback after a decade of dropping floor to the correct.
To them, Timmermans was a global statesman with an actual an opportunity at scoring the Netherland’s premiership, 23 years for the reason that final authorities led by Social Democrats.
However for Dutch voters, he was unable to shake his repute as an outsider and elitist. And it was exactly that worldwide expertise that doomed him as a stodgy statesman in The Hague.
As a European commissioner for practically a decade, half of it spent as Fee President Ursula von der Leyen’s second-in-command, Timmermans delivered the flagship EU Inexperienced Deal package deal to struggle local weather change.
The ailing GreenLeft-Labor alliance — which solely not too long ago started an official merger course of — additionally put inventory in Timmermans, bringing him again house to steer the cost in opposition to the surge of far-right Social gathering for Freedom (PVV) within the nationwide election of 2023. However his celebration did not win the highest slot, and was sidelined in authorities formation.
Social gathering leaders on the correct demonized Timmermans, branding him as a inexperienced fanatic who would misspend taxpayer money, ought to he be given the possibility to manipulate.
Dilan Yeşilgöz, the chief of Mark Rutte’s liberal Folks’s Social gathering for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), known as him “smug” and “elitist” on a number of events — as did different leaders.
Hopes for Timmerman rose once more this previous June when the right-wing authorities, led by Geert Wilders’ PVV, collapsed. With all main events now pledging to sideline the far proper, and with favorable polls putting his celebration second after PVV, Timmermans appeared to have one other shot at main the following Dutch authorities.
However a lot as he tried, Timmermans did not eliminate his EU previous and lead his personal nation.
Brussels vanity
Through the EU election in 2019, Timmermans was the lead candidate of the European Socialists, campaigning throughout EU international locations and on many events talking the native tongue — as he’s fluent in six languages. This spectacular worldwide aptitude earned him supporters in Brussels — however not a lot in his house nation.
Since his return to Dutch politics, Timmermans’ downside has been that he’s seen as an mental centered on international affairs, coming from the skin to lecture Dutch voters, marketing campaign skilled Alex Klusman and Leiden College politics professor Sarah de Lange informed POLITICO forward of the vote.
“He has a handicap, as a result of he’s perceived as this comparatively well-off cosmopolitan” — a picture that creates pressure with the concept of defending “the pursuits of unusual Dutch residents,” stated de Lange.
Over time, Timmermans has grappled with being seen as smug after years of protecting his head overseas — first, as state secretary of EU affairs and minister of international affairs for seven years, adopted by his tenure on the European Fee for 9 years, stated Klusman, who’s the CEO of the BKB campaigning company.
When he got here again to the Netherlands in 2023, Dutch residents noticed Timmermans as somebody who was lecturing them — “telling them what to do, and on the identical time someone who had misplaced full contact with what the Netherlands had change into,” Klusman stated. By that point, Klusman identified, the nation had change into extensively dominated by right-wing politicians distrustful of the EU.
For a person who had been in control of devising the core of the Inexperienced Deal — now utilized in a counter-campaign by portraying it as killing Europe’s companies — it was not a easy touchdown.
An article by Dutch newspaper NRC forward of the vote argued that GreenLeft-Labor is more and more related to phrases like elitist, cosmopolitan and moralistic.
“This picture, partly the results of years of exhausting work by Geert Wilders, has caught with many citizens,” the evaluation stated. “GreenLeft-Labor is discovering it tough to shake that off.”
Timmermans himself was keenly conscious of that picture, which he fought exhausting to depart behind.
The notion of him as an outsider in his personal nation, Timmermans stated when requested by POLITICO previous to the Dutch vote, “was very related two years in the past once I got here again — however final yr, year-and-a-half, this has not been a problem.”
“Folks keep in mind that I used to be in authorities, that I used to be within the European Fee. However it’s now not ‘the man who involves lecture us,’ as a result of I’ve been lively in Dutch politics once more for 2 full years within the forefront of nationwide politics,” he added.
Failed makeover
Timmermans certainly labored exhausting to vary his picture. He sought to convey a extra energetic, more healthy politician campaigning throughout the nation, whereas dwelling in his hometown Maastricht to indicate he’s related to his roots.
That makeover included dramatic weight reduction after a gastric bypass surgical procedure he underwent a yr in the past — which he descrribed at size in an interview with Dutch day by day De Telegraaf, identified to be particularly essential of Timmermans, to strive make him extra palatable to right-wing voters.
However, in response to Klusman, key for Timmermans have been the “two years of humbleness classes” doing parliamentary work as opposition chief after he misplaced the election in 2023.
“To start with, he would by no means say that he wasn’t proper, that he made a unsuitable comment or a unsuitable place in a debate,” stated Klusman. However “now he’d suppose, after which he’d say, ‘no, I made a mistake.’” Timmermans started to pay attention as a substitute of lecture, Klusman added.
Because the EU’s Inexperienced Deal architect, he introduced the message house by specializing in the social elements of local weather change — for instance, Timmermans tapped the narrative that constructing out renewable vitality will cut back the vitality payments for Dutch households.
However regardless of all efforts, private opinion rankings a number of days earlier than the election confirmed the broader Dutch inhabitants didn’t like Timmermans, giving him among the many lowest grades on Oct. 27.
“He’s clearly not perceived as a brand new Timmermans,” stated de Lange. “He’s very a lot perceived as the identical determine he was in 2023” — as a celebration chief with sturdy credentials as a minister and a commissioner — “however far much less as a fighter in politics and campaigning,” she concluded.
Eva Hartog and Hanne Cokelaere contributed to this report.