Dutch foreign minister is the ‘right man’ to fill European Commission post, prime minister says

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte says the foreign minister of the Netherlands is “the right man” to to fill a European Commission vacancy after Frans Timmermans quit this week to lead a center-left bloc into the country’s November general election. Rutte’s ruling coalition proposed Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra as the new Dutch representative to the commission after Timmermans resigned as the climate czar and vice president of the European Union’s executive arm. Hoekstra told reporters on Friday that it would be difficult to leave the Ministry of Foreign Affairs while war is raging in Ukraine “but nobody is indispensable.” It remains to be seen how other EU nations will receive his candidacy.