Following the recent merger of the left-wing Dutch Labour Party (PvdA) and the Greens (GL), European Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans has announced he will be stepping down from his role as the EU’s climate change and environment policy chief in a bid to lead the newly merged parties in the next national election.
Timmermans, 62, announced his candidacy on Thursday, July 20th, shortly after it was confirmed by Dutch media that he would be leaving his post in the European Commission, with Timmermans explaining, “I want to become Prime Minister,” De Telegraaf reports.
The move comes after Timmermans has served and worked in the European Union for around a decade and has been the mastermind of the “Green Deal” which seeks to make European Union member states climate neutral, earning him the nickname “Climate Pope” from some.
Timmermans is no stranger to Dutch national politics, however, and has previously been a member of parliament and served as Dutch Foreign Minister from 2012 to 2014.
The PvdA and GL merger was announced earlier this week on Monday when both parties stated they would be participating in November’s elections on a joint list with a single leader but have not yet decided on who will lead them in the election.
On Thursday, the two parties stated that the new leader will not be openly elected and according to De Telegraaf, Timmermans has the support of many important figures who have also been seen as candidates for leadership, stating his leading the merged parties could be a foregone conclusion.
There have been mixed reactions to the announcement that Timmermans will step down from the EU Commission, with Italian Deputy Prime Minister and leader of the League Matteo Salvini welcoming the news by saying, “We will not miss him.”
“This man has done so much damage. We hope that the Dutch voters will treat him as he deserves,” Salvini added.
Dutch political commentator Eva Vlaardingerbroek expressed concern that Timmermans could become the next Dutch prime minister, saying, “If Timmermans becomes our new prime minister, I sincerely believe it will be the final blow for the Netherlands.”
“The man is the literal personification of globalism and champagne socialism, and he is now clearly aiming to becoming prime minister of the Netherlands; which—ironically—is a country he fundamentally aims to destroy,” she said.
Vlaardingerbroek also noted Timmermans connections to policies that caused the Dutch farmer protests, as the EU Commission backed the idea of forcibly buying out farms to shut them down in a bid to shut down around 3,000 farms in the country in an effort to halt nitrogen emissions.
Timmermans was also a major backer of the EU’s Nature Restoration Law (NRL), in which 30% of the land in Europe will be designated as environmentally protected and will likely have a massive impact on farmers.
The EU commission-backed policies, backed by Timmermans, led to the creation of the BoerBurgerBeweging (BBB), or FarmerCitizenMovement, which was formed to counter nitrogen emission legislation and address the concerns of farmers and other citizens.
The BBB found itself as the largest political force in the country after the Dutch regional elections in March and will likely be the main competition for Timmermans and the Labour-Green alliance.
The only poll released so far after the announcement of the Labour-Green merger was made puts the alliance ahead of the BBB, with a prediction of 28 seats to the BBB’s 21 but with 76 seats needed to form a majority in the Dutch parliament, possible coalition talks could take many months.
The coming November elections were triggered by the downfall of the Netherland’s longest-serving Prime Minister Mark Rutte earlier this month, whose coalition government collapsed over a vote on asylum seekers as Rutte and members of the coalition wanted stricter controls, while others in the government did not.
Rutte later announced that he would be stepping down from politics entirely after the November elections and would not be leading his party, the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) in the elections.
