A cruel twist of fate has ordained that Balkenende has ended up doing something he is completely unsuited for, writes Bert Wagendorp in the Volkskrant

Jan Peter Balkenende has been asked by his party’s board to head the next election campaign. Cue a deafening applause at the party congress. No surprises there, after all, Balkenende is good at winning elections. That is why he has been the country’s prime-minister since 2002.
Unfortunately, being prime-minister is what is he is not so good at. So far he has three cabinets that never came to term, a very shortlived in-between cabinette and an interminable series of conflicts and crises to his name. Never once during all these years did he make clear why he was the right man for the job.
Not a leader, not a speaker, not an inspirer, no team captain..Balkenende is a grammatically challenged, clumsy clown at best, full of weird mantra’s and empty soundbites.
Here is a man who sat down to be interviewed in Buitenhof last Sunday with a triumphant grin on his face as if to say: I have done it again, say hello to Balkenende VIII.
Eight years as prime-minister and he still comes across as a local councillor in Amstelveen.
Any other business (a football club, a school, a newspaper) would take one look at his track record and kindly but firmly ask him to leave the premises. Not so in politics.
What makes him so eager for Balkenende V anyway? Surely anyone with even the tiniest bit of self-knowledge would have drawn his conclusions long ago. A man with his talents could have done so much more.
Two degrees, one in history and one in law, would have been the prefect start for a career in academia. And he’s funny as well. Few have forgotten his perfect imitation of the radio programme the Musical Fruit Basket during his student cabaret days. When they had wiped the tears from their eyes, people invariably said he should be on the stage.
Instead he became CDA’s main brain, him and Ab Klink. Together they gave the party programme a much-needed lick of paint during the wilderness years when Paars ruled.
He was professor of Christian social philosophy at 36 and he knows his wines and antiques. He’s a collector of African art and does a mean drawing himself. He is a talented driver of racing cars.
He could have done anything he liked. The theatre, a Nobel prize for Economics, it was all within reach. He could have been an internationally renowned political thinker. Or an antiques dealer. He could have sold second-hand cars. He would have excelled no matter what career he had chosen.
But a cruel twist of fate made him prime-minister, the only occupation at which he is an utter failure. And there are no signs he’s leaving any time soon. With every cabinet his ineptitude stands out even more and still he goes on, until the end of times. Why JP, why?
It’s a very sad thing. For him but mostly for us.
Bert Wagendorp is a columnist with the Volkskrant. This is an unofficial translation.