EU climate chief Timmermans to leave Brussels, run in Dutch election

Labour and Green Left have decided to join forces in the Nov. 22 vote, in a bid to stem a decline in support for left-leaning parties. An EU commission spokesperson declined to comment on the report, which said the Dutch politician would announce his candidacy in Maastricht later on Thursday.

Frans Timmermans will leave the European Commission to run for the leadership of the combined Labour and Green Left parties in a Dutch national election in November, newspaper De Volkskrant reported on Thursday. Timmermans, a member of the Dutch Labour party, has informed the commission of his decision, the paper said. Labour and Green Left have decided to join forces in the Nov. 22 vote, in a bid to stem a decline in support for left-leaning parties.

An EU commission spokesperson declined to comment on the report, which said the Dutch politician would announce his candidacy in Maastricht later on Thursday. A spokesperson for the Dutch Labour Party also declined to comment. Timmermans, 62, serves as the European Commission's vice president, and is in charge of the EU's Green Deal - its wide-ranging package of policies on climate change and the environment.

He is also a well-known figure in the Netherlands, having served as foreign minister in 2012-2014 in the previous cabinet of outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte. Timmermans, a native of the southern Dutch province of Limburg who has spent nearly a decade in Brussels, would be standing in the first election since 2006 in which outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte was not leading his conservative VVD party.

Rutte's four-party coalition government resigned earlier this month after failing to reach an agreement on restricting immigration. Timmermans had been tipped as a top candidate to lead the Dutch parties following his campaign for European social democrats in the 2019 European election, which was widely regarded as a success.

Timmermans, who speaks English, German, French, Italian and Russian in addition to his native Dutch, is known as a skilled negotiator during international climate negotiations and his departure from EU politics will cause shockwaves. How well he may perform in Dutch politics is an open question, but a poll published on Thursday indicated that 39% of Dutch voters said they trusted him to lead the next government.

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