Prime minister under fire for lacking urgency over euro crisis

Prime minister Mark Rutte has come under fire from several sources for failing to show a sense of urgency about tackling the euro crisis.

The comments came after Rutte and German chancellor Angela Merkel pledged at a news conference in Berlin to ‘work together’ to find solutions to Europe’s woes.
The two leaders met in Berlin on Wednesday and reached agreement on a number of concrete points, the NRC reported. These include the need for strong control of budgets, European-level bank supervision and making sure all countries in the eurozone meet agreements, the paper said.
Controversy
However, it appeared as if the two had agreed in advance only to mention subjects they agree on and to avoid controversial issues such as political union, NRC correspondant Mark Beunderman said.
‘Neither mentioned political union and dodged questions about the new political organisation which Merkel supports and Rutte strongly opposes,’ he said. ‘They spoke repeatedly of the importance of working together.’
Former central bank executive Lex Hoogduin told website nu.nl on Thursday Rutte is not displaying any sense of urgency over the crisis. ‘It is incomprehensible that we have not seen him once on television, speaking to the people about the problems,’ Hoogduin said.
‘He is the leader of a caretaker government in the middle of one of the biggest crises ever,’ Hoogduin said. The prime minister avoids discussion by saying he does not feel like debating the future. But how the crisis ends is ‘so crucial for the Netherlands that you cannot act as if nothing is going on,’ the professor said.
Election
Raoul de Pre, writing in the Volkskrant, said Rutte has ‘two European faces’. On the one hand, he is enthusiastic about saving the euro, but in the Hague, he ‘looks difficult’ if you mention European integration or transfer responsibilities, De Pre said.
De Pre points out that Rutte’s position is not helped by the looming general election, which led CDA leader Sybrand van Haersma Buma to attack the prime minister for being ‘paralysed’.
The Netherlands elects a new government in September. Rutte’s VVD and the Eurosceptic Socialists are currently neck and neck in the opinion polls.
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