How Dutch press are used for a political power struggle

Benelux readers have probably been following the recent upheaval in Dutch liberal part VVD. The party’s leader Mark Rutte, who has been in a constant battle over power with former VVD minister Rita Verdonk, yesterday announced that he wants to expel Verdonk from the party’s fraction in parliament.

After several conflicts, where the outspoken Verdonk criticized Rutte’s leadership publicly, up to now they reconciled every time. Verdonk’s latest remarks at a private dinner, which leaked to daily De Telegraaf yesterday, where not very remarkable, but it seems that Rutte just could not take it anymore. Rutte’s move to expel Verdonk is a risky one, as she was responsible for more than half of all VVD votes at the latest Dutch elections. She also has a lot of followers within the party.

From a PR perspective it’s interesting to see what happened here. Firstly, Verdonk and Rutte were running against each other for the party’s leadership before the general elections. After Rutte was chosen by the party members, Verdonk immediately announced to the press that she would back him fully as the new leader. Then the elections took place and Verdonk managed to get a lot of more votes than Rutte. She announced a press conference where she asked to be reconsidered as the new party leader instead of Rutte. Rutte stayed in power, but then a long history followed of Verdonk publicly criticizing the party’s leadership, which led to numerous crises.

By now it is very unlikely that Verdonk’s latest criticism was just a slip of the tongue, even when said at a private dinner. As experienced as she is with the media, she knows exactly what the effects of her remarks are. To the media her first reaction to Rutte’s announcement was that she needed 24 hours to decide if she gave up her seat in parliament or would stay and start her own independent party. This morning, ‘sources’ confirmed that she is now considering a third option to stay within the fraction, and will ask the party members at a VVD meeting this Saturday to confirm this. From Verdonk’s side it seems obvious that she still feels she should be the party’s leader and that Rutte should step down.

During his press conference yesterday, Rutte seemed very moved and emotional, stating that he did not have trust anymore that Verdonk would be willing to stop her criticism. He presented his decision to expel her as the only viable option. By saying this he implies that, should members want Verdonk to stay, he has no other option than to resign his leadership.

Thus, both Rutte and Verdonk are working towards a climax where only one of them will come out as a winner.

Personally I am a bit surprised why Rutte has launched this battle with Verdonk into the press. Sure, chemistry may not be there between the two egos, but why not use Verdonk’s qualities within the party? Verdonk is excellent at starting public debates in society around controversial topics and attracting media attention. This could well be a chance for the party to test the resonance of some controversial ideas without immediately backfiring onto the whole party.

Rutte is now making a last effort to save the credibility that he has lost already. He could have taken control of the situation by offering his own resignation and proposing for a vote on this in Saturday’s party meeting. The worst thing that could happen is for the members to accept this, but at least he would he would have taken the initiative himself. In the current situation the worst that can happen is for him to be forced to resign because the members prefer Verdonk.

Richard