The way is clear for the appointment of Mark Rutte as the next Secretary General of NATO, after months of deadlock. Romania was the latest alliance state to announce on Thursday that it would give up its opposition to the awarding of the top position to the outgoing Dutch head of government.
Romanian President Klaus Johannis has officially withdrawn his candidacy. There is enormous pressure within the alliance on Johannis to withdraw his application and thus pave the way for the outgoing Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte.
Hungary and Slovakia had already given up their resistance to Rutte on Tuesday. They justified this with promises from the Dutchman. Romania was the only one of the 32 NATO countries that had not yet declared in favor of Rutte. The 57-year-old wants to succeed Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in October.
Broad support for Rutte
The US, Germany, Great Britain and France had already campaigned for Rutte in February. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, for example, stated that the Dutchman was an “excellent candidate” with his “enormous experience, his great expertise in security policy and his strong diplomatic skills.”
Just a few weeks later, Johannis announced his candidacy for the opposition in March. He justified this by saying that Eastern Europeans were underrepresented in the alliance.
Source: Krone
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