‘I’m not ordered to be the funniest or to make the craziest remarks,’ said Christian Democrat Henri Bontenbal.
EINDHOVEN, The Netherlands — “You don’t see me lash out against other parties that often.”
Henri Bontenbal, leader of the center-right Dutch Christian Democratic Appeal, has just finished a two-hour event at the High Tech Campus in Eindhoven when reporters asked why he avoids sparring with far-right leader Geert Wilders ahead of this month’s national elections.
Bontenbal, a former energy consultant and a relative newcomer to politics, is sitting on the stage where he has nerdily lectured an audience about the importance of collaboration and trust in the political realm.
“Other parties occasionally give us a slap,” he admits. “But we continue to tell our own story.”
Bontenbal entered the political arena in an era defined by characters such as Wilders and Donald Trump. It’s also a time when politicians continuously attack each other and make outlandish claims in a snackable format on social media.
But Bontenbal has taken a different approach.
“Bontenbal is in many views the anti-populist,” wrote Simon Van Teutem, a Dutch columnist at news site The Correspondent, in a September profile.
The approach is fitting for the 42-year-old, raised as one of eight in a Protestant family in Rotterdam, who takes pride in sharing that he still reads the Bible daily.
After two chaotic years, Bontenbal’s message of decency, stability and trust is suddenly resonating with voters.
Dutch voters head back to the polling booths on Oct. 29, after the last government fell barely a year into office. The CDA is neck and neck for second in the polls alongside a joint Socialist-Greens ticket, at around 24 seats, behind Wilders’ far-right PVV at 31 seats.
That’s set to make the party one of the election’s big winners and Bontenbal a potential kingmaker in government negotiations.
Bontenbal’s political career began unexpectedly in 2021, when he became a temporary member of parliament, filling in for the illustrious former politician Pieter Omtzigt. In the November 2023 elections, CDA’s support crumbled to five seats shortly after Bontenbal had taken over — in part because of the success of Omtzigt’s new rival party. Back then, Bontenbal’s leadership of the center-right seemed doomed.
Fast forward two years and the mood in Eindhoven, a breeding ground for top companies including ASML and Philips, is bright.
The venue in the Netherlands’ “smartest square km” is packed for an event in honor of a local candidate. But Bontenbal — known to voters as Henri — is top of the ticket. Beer mats read “Henri, one more round?” On the tables are copies of his new book, It Really Can Be Different.
On stage in Eindhoven, Botenbal lists four priorities for the election, “which we all know are top of the list”: housing shortages, how to handle asylum seekers, the country’s nitrogen crisis and investments in the economy of the future.
He also doubles down on the Netherlands’ longing for political calm, as the country nears the third election in under five years. He champions “stability,” “decency,” and “trust” and wears being boring as a badge of pride.
Addressing a venue packed with entrepreneurs, he promises them a “reliable government” and a long-term investment agenda.
“If I speak to entrepreneurs, the first they ask for is not to lower taxes, but what they ask for is: can you please keep things stable in the next few years?”
Bontenbal’s spiel is geared toward welcoming the centrist Christian Democratic voters back, as much through style as substance.
“The country is longing for a stable government,” he told a candidates’ TV debate Thursday — adding that while Wilders is “the best megaphone for dissatisfaction and anger,” he feels that politicians can do better.
“Politics is not a theatre, not a circus,” Bontenbal told the talk show RTL Tonight recently after an analyst said that TV viewers had perceived him as decent yet boring in the first televised debate.
“I’m not ordered to be the funniest or to make the craziest remarks,” Bontenbal added.
Being boring is a quality, the analyst agreed.