Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte bowed out on Sunday with a live speech to the nation in which he called on people to “look out for one another”.

Speaking in the prime minister’s octagonal office, known as the torentje, Rutte said he had both good and bad moments during his 14-year tenure.

“The Netherlands is a great country. I may have said that once or twice too often, but that’s because I mean it from the bottom of my heart,” he said.

Widely regarded as a bridge builder, Rutte was also in charge during two of the biggest scandals in Dutch political history. The childcare benefit scandal, in which tens of thousands of people were wrongly accused of fraudulent claims, remains unfinished business, with many victims still waiting to be compensated.

Nor has the Groningen gas crisis, which has left thousands of people living in homes damaged by subsidence, many still without proper compensation.

Rutte described both as “low points.”

His highlights included the way the Netherlands emerged from the 2008 financial crisis, dealing with the pandemic as well as hit apology for the actions of the Dutch government during the Holocaust and for the history of slavery.

“Those are moments when, as prime minister, you can make a direct connection by acknowledging, with all the emotion that that unleashes. Not as a person, not as Mark Rutte from The Hague, but as a representative of something bigger: a country, a society,” he said.

Longest serving PM

Rutte was the longest serving Dutch prime minister and has dominated politics for over a decade. Known for his informal style and riding his bike to meetings, Rutte entered the lower house of parliament in 2003 before being called up as a junior minister in two successive governments led by Jan Peter Balkenende.

In 2006 he returned to parliament and became leader of the VVD. In 2010 he took the VVD to victory in the general election and formed his first administration, a coalition with the CDA and propped up by the far-right PVV.

That cabinet collapsed in 2012 over differences of opinion about government spending, but Rutte went on to lead three more governments. The last administration collapsed in 2023 over differences in dealing with refugees.

Rutte, born on February 14, 1967, is now heading to Nato where he is taking over from former Norwegian prime minister Jens Stoltenberg. He is the fourth Dutch Nato chief.

While prime minister he taught social studies one morning a week at a secondary school in The Hague, and says he hopes to be able to continue doing so in some form while leading Nato.