Who is Rob Jetten, tipped to become youngest Dutch prime minister?

Rob Jetten’s achievement in dragging his socially liberal D66 get together from fifth place to the highest of Dutch politics in lower than two years has been extraordinary.

However politically, all the celebrities had been completely aligned for the 38-year-old to take action.

The results of Wednesday’s election is just too near name, with Jetten vying with anti-Islam populist Geert Wilders for probably the most seats in parliament.

No different political chief commanded as a lot display screen time throughout the marketing campaign as Jetten and his smile and cheerful message resonated with voters, whereas his rivals typically struggled.

Hardly an evening glided by with out him on TV. When Wilders cancelled an look due to safety fears, Rob Jetten seized the second and took his place. He even featured in a TV quiz present recorded months in the past referred to as The Smartest Individual.

And his D66 get together was untarnished by involvement in Wilders’ ill-fated 11-month coalition, largely as a result of Jetten had fared so poorly within the final election in 2023. The federal government collapsed final June when Wilders’ party quit following a row over migration.

However maybe greater than anything, he was capable of convey a optimistic message summed up by the slogan Het kan wel – an optimistic phrase that borrows from Barack Obama’s “Sure, we are able to”.

It contrasted strongly with Wilders, who he accused of “sowing division”.

If his get together does come prime, Rob Jetten may change into the Netherlands’ first overtly homosexual prime minister.

A self-confessed politics nerd as a toddler, the younger Jetten grew up in a small city within the southern province of Brabant and got here out when he was younger.

Jetten has not made his personal life a part of his political identification, however 5 years in the past he posted a video by which he learn out an extended record of homophobic messages from his cellphone, to show why a world day towards homophobia was essential.

Jetten is now engaged to Argentine hockey participant, Nicolás Keenan, and they’re as a consequence of marry subsequent yr.

He was an early supporter of the centrist D66, which describes itself as progressive and socially liberal get together, and officers quickly noticed his potential.

After a couple of years working for Dutch rail community ProRail, Jetten was elected as an MP in 2017 and had a few early experiences as chief earlier than he served below long-serving prime minister Mark Rutte as local weather minister.

However not every little thing has labored out easily in Jetten’s profession.

A parliamentary colleague complained he was “pushy” on the local weather, and his large ambitions as minister had been reduce quick when Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine despatched power costs hovering.

He led D66’s disastrous marketing campaign in 2023 when the get together got here away with solely 9 seats, two years after his predecessor Sigrid Kaag managed second place after Rutte.

Jetten was not but as fluent in entrance of the cameras. Some media appearances he gave had been criticised as uninteresting, and one critic labelled him “Robotic Jetten”.

“Robotic Jetten goes to be prime minister!” one reporter mentioned to him incredulously as his success grew to become clear on Wednesday night time.

“Typically it might work out actually loopy in politics,” Jetten replied with a broad grin.

Supporters see him as a type of mini-Mark Rutte, who’s now head of Nato.

And that comparability will swimsuit Jetten high quality, as many Dutch now look again warmly on the soundness of the Rutte years, after two years of relative turmoil.

Each males at all times seem cheerful and pragmatic, and each are infamous for getting by on valuable little sleep.

Nonetheless, get together colleague Roy Kramer observed a distinction: “Rutte is a chatterbox, Jetten is a bit quieter,” he informed Dutch newspaper Het Parool.

The liberal chief has large ambitions, and few challenges are extra urgent than tackling the Netherlands’ housing disaster, with a scarcity of some 400,000 properties.

Jetten needs to construct 10 cities and complains Dutch governments have not likely achieved something spectacular for the previous 10 to fifteen years. He’s making large guarantees and can come below strain to ship.

For Jetten to succeed he’ll want a few of Rutte’s teflon political coating that noticed him by 4 governments.

He has already survived one awkward second within the marketing campaign, when a joke about Crown Princess Amalia fell flat in entrance of two,000 college students in Rotterdam.

“I feel one of the simplest ways of selling work within the navy is with the ability to find yourself coaching with the Crown Princess. I wager a couple of guys on this viewers could be excited by that,” he mentioned.

The talk moderator hit again saying: “what sort of sexist comment is that?”

Jetten later admitted it was inappropriate, however it seems to have performed him no hurt.