Frans Timmermans is set to leave his post as European Commission vice-president and return to Dutch politics as head of the Socialist-Green bloc currently leading in national polls.
Timmermans has already informed European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, and will make an official announcement in Maastricht today, July 20, said Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant.
He was widely seen as favourite to lead an alliance between the Labour (PvdA) and GreenLeft (GroenLinks) parties. They will announce a joint preferred candidate in August, which also is when Timmermans will leave the EC.
The two parties will vote on their choice at their respective congresses in September.
The Netherlands will hold a general election on November 22. Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s centre-right coalition government collapsed on July 10 amid a row over asylum policy.
Rutte’s People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) led a coalition of four parties but trails the Socialist-Green bloc in the latest polls, with the right-wing Farmer-Citizen-movement (BBB) sitting third.
Timmermans was foreign secretary and a PvdA MP before leaving for Brussels in 2014.
There he served in the EC under then-president Jean-Claude Juncker, who dubbed Timmermans his “right-hand man”.
Although failing in 2019 to succeed Juncker as EC president, under von der Leyen Timmermans became a leading advocate for European ‘green’ legislation, spearheading the Green Deal and nature restoration law.
Timmermans’s announcement confirmed earlier rumours reported by Brussels Signal.
The Netherlands will likely look to replace him quickly for the remaining year of the current EC tenure, with June 2024 European Parliament elections not far away.
Von der Leyen may decide to reshuffle portfolios and give the Green Deal project to Paolo Gentiloni, a former Italian prime minister who is currently serving as the EC’s economy tsar, observers say.
With the Dutch coalition split, it could probe difficult for Rutte’s caretaker government to find a compromise candidate, they add.
