Ruud Lubbers, the Netherlands' longest serving prime minister, has died aged 78. Lubbers also headed the UN refugee agency on a symbolic $1 salary, and, in 1991, hosted the EU's formative Maastricht summit.
 |
| Former Dutch prime minister Ruud Lubbers in B/W (picture alliance/ANP/V. Kuypers) |
Lubbers, a conservative who argued for "more markets, less government" and a closer European Union, passed away on Wednesday in his home city of Rotterdam, the Dutch government announced. No cause of death was given.
Dutch Prime
Minister Mark Rutte said the Netherlands had "lost a statesman with huge
stature" and went on to praise Lubbers for his commitment to Europe and as
a "world citizen" who was "intelligent and wise."
"He
knew how to find a solution to every problem," Rutte added.
Lubbers, a
Christian Democrat from a Rotterdam engineering and machinery family, who
studied economics and then headed an employers' federation, formed his first
government in 1982 with the liberal VVD party, on a pledge to cut back the Dutch
welfare state.
His slogan
"more markets, less government" prompted conflict with trade unions
but earned him a reputation for the "Dutch model" of spurring the
economy to create more jobs.
Key role at
Maastricht
In his
third consecutive term, he formed a grand coalition with center-left Social
Democrats in 1989, and played a key role in late 1991 when the Netherlands
hosted an EU summit that formulated the bloc's Maastricht Treaty focused on
political integration.
The accord,
signed in early 1992, also laid the groundwork for the shared euro currency.
When he
stepped down in the Dutch election year 1994, he had become the Netherland's
longest-serving prime minister.
His 12
years in office had included his persuading parliament to accept the deployment
of NATO European missiles in the Netherlands and ambitious conservation
projects across the densely populated low-lying nation.
WWF and
then UNHCR
After
stints in academia, bids for top jobs at the European Commission and NATO, and
criticism of Germany's then-chancellor, Helmut Kohl, Lubbers went on to serve
as president of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in 2000, before becoming
the head of the UNHCR refugee agency in 2001.
Bombing of
Afghanistan wrong
A month
after the 9/11 airline hijacker attacks on New York and Washington, Ludders
rejected US bombardment of largely Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.
He told
Germany's Die Zeit newspaper in October 2001 that less US military action, not
more, combined with aid agency assistance, would minimize the "danger of a
conflagration."
As UNHCR
commissioner he had urged the United States: "no revenge, no
disproportionate reprisal attacks that will inevitably cause larger refugee
flows and human suffering."
Resignation
His UNHCR
post was extended in 2003 but in 2005 he was forced to step down over sexual
harassment allegations, which he rejected as defamatory.
In latter
years, when the Netherlands had difficulties forming coalition governments,
Queen Beatrix reportedly called in Lubbers as adviser and intermediary.
Dutch
broadcaster NOS said Lubbers had long suffered from an unspecified illness.
ipj/kms (AFP, AP, Reuters, Munzinger-Archive)
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.