Sigrid Kaag, the first female Prime Minister in the Netherlands?
Audio 03:19
Sigrid Kaag, Dutch Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation, in Paris, May 22, 2019. AFP - ERIC PIERMONT
By: Vincent Souriau
8 mins
A few days before the Dutch legislative elections, the outgoing Prime Minister, the conservative Mark Rutte, is the favorite.
But once again, he will have to set up a coalition government and negotiate with the one who was until now his Minister of Foreign Trade.
This is Sigrid Kaag, a career diplomat who spent more than twenty years at the UN, until becoming Special Adviser to Ban Ki-moon.
She has just taken the head, only six months ago, of the D66 party on the left of the Dutch political spectrum.
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She negotiated the chemical disarmament of the Syrian regime.
She coordinated the UN office in Lebanon.
She has lived in Jerusalem, Jordan, New York, Sudan, Switzerland ... In short, she is on the move, strong nerves and a taste for risk.
But why did Sigrid Kaag leave high diplomacy to get into politics?
"
Nothing could be more natural
", replies the Dutch deputy Achraf Bouali, who is an activist within his party, D66, and who worked with her in the Dutch Parliament for several years.
“
Diplomacy is politics abroad, but it's still politics.
She has worked for the United Nations in different countries.
I think she also wanted to use her strengths in the Netherlands to change politics there.
We are one of the few countries in Europe which has not had a woman as Prime Minister.
I think Sigrid Kaag is the right person for this in the Netherlands.
"
This is one of his campaign arguments: to give a facelift to a very masculine landscape.
Because, within the four main parties competing in the legislative elections, her formation is the only one to be led by a woman.
His calling card: center-left, social-liberal and pro-European.
But this election is not quite like the others.
The coronavirus pandemic has been there and what the Dutch expect in the short term is a government to roll back the disease.
In this regard, does Sigrid Kaag's experience at the UN work in his favor?
Caution....
"
From humanitarian aid to health, it is not exactly the same thing
", according to Christophe de Voogd, professor at Science Po and author of
History of the Netherlands: from the origins to the present day.
“
Humanitarian aid was nevertheless the projection of the Netherlands towards world otherness.
Rather, the health crisis has the opposite effect of sending the Netherlands back to itself.
It is a card that Rutte and the populists play very well.
In addition, it starts from a very high party with 19 seats, which already puts it in third place and which is historically a lot for this party which is a somewhat marginal party.
If she does this well, it will already be a triumph.
"
His program: investing in education, inflating teachers' salaries, better integrating immigrants, tackling discrimination ... His chances of winning the legislative elections are very slim.
But at the very least, it has the ambition to tip the future coalition to the left and to cash in dearly for its seats in Parliament.
"
If you have five seats, you weigh heavily, because you can make a majority or defeat it,
" says Christophe de Voogd.
“
That's what she's playing on.
In the landscape, what she wants is third place, she wants to pass in front of the Christian Democrats.
And it is not impossible.
It would be second in the coalition with Rutte and therefore it would weigh more heavily.
It's going to be a center-left pivotal party that can go with the right or the left.
But the left will not be in a position to make a majority.
"
There is no rush, Sigrid Kaag is certainly 59 years old, but she still has to settle into her seasoned politician clothes.
She has just completed three years as Dutch Minister of Foreign Trade.
A good legislative score could propel her to other functions within the future executive.
She would certainly not be out of place at Foreign Affairs.
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