After a political blitz career, Dutch minister Sigrid Kaag exchanges The Hague for the Palestinian ruins. Internationally she is seen as a top diplomat with an impressive record of service, but at the Binnenhof she quickly became the most hated politician in the Netherlands.
Stavros Kelepouris27 December 2023, 19:13
The images were instantly iconic. Sigrid Kaag, known in a previous life as a very serious diplomat, dancing on the table of the D66 party headquarters. The first exit poll showed that the Dutch Social Democrats had achieved the largest election victory in their history. For Kaag it was the crowning achievement of her return to the Netherlands. And it strengthened her ambition to become the first female Prime Minister of the Netherlands.
Less than three years later, Kaag leaves The Hague again. She will leave her post as Minister of Finance in the Rutte IV cabinet at the beginning of 2024. At the request of UN Secretary General António Guterres, Kaag is once again withdrawing from diplomacy as coordinator of the reconstruction and humanitarian aid to Gaza. From the Binnenhof to the Palestinian ruins.
This puts an end to a political blitz career that quickly became difficult for Kaag. In October 2017, she was asked by D66 leader Alexander Pechtold to become Minister of Foreign Trade. Not much later, she would also take control of the party leadership herself and propel D66 to electoral success. But that success stood in stark contrast to the personal toll that political life took.
Label ‘witch’
Kaag quickly became the most hated politician in the Netherlands – with regular death threats. The weekly magazine De Groene Amsterdammer once calculated that Kaag had received 13,000 hate messages in five months, one every fifteen minutes. Thanks to Geert Wilders, leader of the far-right PVV, her opponents labeled her a ‘witch’.
That climate became increasingly less suitable for Kaag. And it’s not like she wasn’t used to anything. At the United Nations she built an impressive career as a top diplomat in conflict areas. Until her appointment as minister, she was special envoy in civil war-ridden Lebanon. Previously, she headed a special UN mission to destroy chemical weapons in Syria – a position that brought her face to face with dictator Bashar al-Assad on more than one occasion. On the sideboard in her living room is a framed letter from American President Barack Obama, personally thanking her for her role in the peace talks.
Kaag saw her return to the Netherlands as a final destination: now it was time to give something back to her country. She saw the fact that relations with (part of) the Netherlands had soured so much as a deep disappointment.
So what made her such a hated woman? Just the fact that she is a woman, according to Kaag herself. “Not everyone likes a woman who is highly educated, verbally strong, and with experience,” she said in an interview with De Morgen earlier this year. “A woman who thinks she wants to become prime minister, that’s a lot!”
According to her opponents, Kaag often came across as cold, calculating and elitist. But the reality may rather be that Kaag was not easily impressed by a political opponent. Anyone negotiating with Assad will not cower in fear at a sneer from Geert Wilders or Thierry Baudet.
Sigrid Kaag. Image Rebecca Fertinel
“Many people saw her as a very cold, hard woman. But she is a very warm person and mother,” says Khalid Boufadiss, her personal assistant in The Hague for years. “Every month she takes an hour to write cards to completely unknown people who have wished her happiness. And even during heavy political discussions, she would talk to her children on the phone about their study books.”
Kaag may not back down easily, but she did when a religious fanatic showed up at her front door in 2022 with a burning torch. “That was the final straw, I can tell you that. Then it would have been enough for a while,” said Kaag. Since then, a police caravan with a small fortune in surveillance cameras has stood on the sidewalk in front of her home.
These threats made Kaag think about whether the rest of her life should be spent in the Netherlands. But the truth is also that her political success proved short-lived. After a long, drawn-out formation, she joined the fourth and final Rutte government, which fell earlier this year. In the subsequent elections for the House of Representatives, Wilders won. D66, now led by Rob Jetten, lost 15 of the 24 seats.
messy evacuation
Not only the party but also Kaag himself was in dire straits. After the messy evacuation of Dutch people from Afghanistan, she had to resign as minister. And as party leader, she was deeply criticized when it turned out that she had not dealt with a MeToo case involving a party member in a sufficiently decisive manner.
Abroad beckoned again – in recent years she was often asked for a diplomatic position abroad, but she still declined. Gaza is not unknown territory for Kaag. Years ago, she volunteered in the West Bank. Her husband is a Palestinian who was once a shadow minister for Yasser Arafat’s PLO. The couple also owns a house together in Jerusalem.
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2023-12-27 18:13:11
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