Over the years, many speakers have come to the European Parliament and insulted MEPs. But I have seen few enrage the EU’s directly-elected legislature more than Mark Rutte with his ‘dream on’ comments this past week.
The NATO secretary general was being peppered with questions during his appearance before the parliament’s defence committee on Monday about what exactly he gave away to Trump on behalf of Denmark which made the US president back off his threats to acquire Greenland through invasion or economic coercion for the time being. He was also asked about his general closeness with Trump and the impression he is leaving that in his mind he has only one boss - the US president. MEPs asked him why he has been repeatedly disparaging efforts to build a sovereign European defence that would enable the continent to defend itself without US help. Clearly triggered by the questioning, the Dutchman – who was prime minister of the Netherlands from 2010 to 2024 – responded with his characteristic bluntness (also known as rudeness outside the Netherlands).
“If anyone thinks here…that the European Union or Europe as a whole can defend itself without the US, keep on dreaming,” he scolded the EU lawmakers. “You can’t.”
It didn’t seem like advice, it seemed like a command. And the already-angered MEPs were made even more furious by the remark. “Are you the [US] ambassador to [NATO] or the secretary-general representing the alliance and its members?” Nacho Sánchez Amor, a Spanish centre-left MEP from the party of Pedro Sanchez, asked Rutte in a heated exchange. French MEP Nathalie Loiseau, an ally of President Macron who previously served as his Europe minister, called it “a disgraceful moment”. “Rutte thinks that being rude with Europeans will please Trump. We don’t need a Trump zealot. NATO needs to rebalance between US and European efforts.”
The complaints didn’t just come from inside the parliament.