Wouter Bos steps down as Dutch Labour leader
Dutch Labour party leader Wouter Bos will retire from politics and not lead his party in the upcoming elections, he announced Friday.
The former finance minister told a press conference in The Hague that the
Netherlands needs a leader who will unite its citizens, rather than drive
them apart. “I have always believed this,” Bos said. “But I no longer think
I should be the one leading Labour.”
Bos’ Labour party is currently the second largest in the Dutch parliament. It did not fare well in the March 3 local elections, but opinion polls show it is one of the contenders to become the biggest force in parliament after the June 9 national elections. Bos suggested his leadership should be handed over to Amsterdam mayor Job Cohen, a moderate voice in Dutch politics. Cohen (62), who is also a former deputy minister, would challenge current Christian Democratic prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende and populist leader Geert Wilders for the position of Dutch prime minister.
Bos told reporters that his last years as Labour’s leader and finance minister
had been both unique and challenging. “I was in the position to lead the
country through the toughest crisis it faced in 80 years, and it was an
honour to serve the public interest,” he said. But he added that as a father
of three young children he had other responsibilities too. “If we do well in
the June 9 elections, I will not be able to see my children grow up. To me,
that is too great a sacrifice.”
Amsterdam mayor Job Cohen on Friday afternoon announced his candidacy for leadership of the Labour party.
He responded to Wouter Bos' earlier announcement saying he regretted Bos’ departure. But Cohen also said he had agreed to his request to follow in his footsteps “with full conviction”. Cohen resigned as the capital's mayor immediately.
Cohen did not want to talk about the possibility of him becoming the next prime minister. "I am a candidate for the party leadership," he said. It is now up to the party to elect him. But if it does and Labour wins the upcoming elections, Cohen said he would "not shy away from the responsibility".
Cohen reponds
Until last month, 46-year-old Bos served as finance minister and the country’s deputy prime minister in Balkenende’s fourth cabinet. A controversy between Bos and Christian Democratic foreign minister, Maxime Verhagen, over the possible extension of Dutch troop deployment in the Afghan province Uruzgan led to the collapse of that cabinet. Bos had been Labour’s frontman since 2002.
Bos said he had decided before the recent municipal elections that he would step down and had discussed this move with Job Cohen, who he believes would be the greatest possible leader for both Labour and the nation. “He is the best successor I could wish for, and he will issue his own statement later this afternoon,” Bos said Friday. “But the party has its own procedure for these matters,” he added, explaining that the leadership decision is not his to make.
Bos said it is up to others to judge whether his tenure as Labour leader was a success or not. “I don’t find the question very interesting,” he said.
Bos’ statement comes a day after Christian democratic minister Camiel Eurlings’ announcement he too would be leaving national politics. Eurlings, who many labelled the crown prince of Balkenende’s CDA party, said he wanted to devote more time to his private life.