Longtime Dutch prime minister
RUUD LUBBERS, 1939 - 2018
Ruud Lubbers, who as the Netherlands’ longest-serving prime minister led his country through economic turmoil to prosperity and helped shape the foundations of the European Union, died Wednesday. He was 78.
The government announced that Lubbers died in Rotterdam surrounded by his wife and children. No cause of death was given.
Prime Minister Mark Rutte hailed Lubbers, who led the Dutch government from 1982 to 1994, as a statesman who carried the Netherlands through tough economic times.
“With his broad knowledge and experience and his tireless creativity, he knew how to find a solution for every problem,” Rutte said on Facebook.
Lubbers’ conservative economic policies were in step with his counterparts’ in Washington and London during the 1980s, President Reagan and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. He trimmed back the Dutch welfare state, persuaded powerful labor unions to rein in their demands and ushered in years of growth.
Dutch King Willem-Alexander, his wife, Queen Maxima, and the king’s mother, Princess Beatrix, paid tribute to his work for economic and social recovery. Beatrix was the Netherlands’ monarch during Lubbers’ tenure and stepped aside for her son in 2013.
“We remember Ruud Lubbers as a great statesman with an impressive sense of responsibility,” the royals said in a statement.
Lubbers’ international reputation suffered in 2005, however, when he was forced to step down as U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees in a sexual harassment scandal. He maintained his innocence even as he resigned.
An economist by training, Lubbers believed the size of the Dutch government had become a hindrance to the country’s economic health.
With the words “Holland is sick,” he argued that generous disability and unemployment benefits had become fiscally unsustainable, and that too many people took advantage of them simply to avoid working.
He was sometimes criticized as too willing to compromise on principles, but to supporters he was a pragmatist and a dealmaker. Carrying the Dutch tradition of consensus politics forward, Lubbers struck agreements with unions to limit wage growth in exchange for low unemployment, and curtailed government spending.
“More markets, less government” was a favorite campaign slogan of his.
Sybrand Buma, current chief of Lubbers’ Christian Democrats, called him a leader “who made choices that might not have been popular at the time, but were necessary to haul the Netherlands out of crisis.”
After leaving national politics, Lubbers’ international aspirations were frustrated. A candidate to head the European Commission, he lost to Jacques Santer in 1994. He was tapped as NATO secretary general in 1996 but lacked American support and yielded to Spain’s Javier Solana.
In 2001, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan named him high commissioner for refugees. But his accomplishments were overshadowed by the sexual harassment case brought by an American UNHCR employee, Cynthia Brzak, who accused him of improperly touching her after a meeting.
Lubbers denied impropriety, calling it an innocent “friendly gesture.” He fought for more than a year to save his reputation and job, but a U.N. investigation in 2004 found a pattern of sexual misconduct after additional women came forward.
Annan initially declined to act, saying the findings were not strong enough for dismissal, but under pressure asked the Dutchman to resign in February 2005.
Lubbers ws born in Rotterdam on May 7, 1939, to a wealthy contractor’s family. A religious Catholic, Lubbers rose through the ranks of several powerful Christian employers’ associations and the national Catholic political party. It merged with two other closely allied Protestant parties in 1980 to form the Christian Democrats.
Lubbers was appointed economic affairs minister in 1973 and held the post for four years. He gained a reputation as a tireless, if sometimes abrasive executive, with a thorough knowledge of policy details.
After the new Christian Democratic Alliance won elections in 1977, Lubbers headed its first parliamentary faction — a difficult position that required keeping unruly members from three parties in line to support Prime Minister Dries van Agt’s government.
When Van Agt unexpectedly stepped down after winning an election in 1982, Lubbers assumed the premiership almost by default.
At the time, the country faced major economic problems, including a dangerously large budget deficit. But after striking an agreement with industry and unions, Lubbers slashed spending, earning himself the nickname “Ruud Shock” in Time magazine.
Lubbers is survived by his wife, Ria Lubbers, and three children.