Quotes of the Day

Wouter Bos seems too good to be true. He's smart, relaxed and impossibly telegenic, with a knack for coming across as humble and sincere. And though his Dutch Labor Party is neck and neck with the Christian Democrats (CDA) in this week's general election in the Netherlands, Bos — who has been party leader for all of two months — insists he doesn't want to be Prime Minister if Labor wins. "Voters knew from the start that I want to go into [government] as leader of the parliamentary party," Bos, 39, said in a newspaper interview last week. "The guarantee I give voters is that I will be the one to choose the new Prime Minister if we are the biggest party, and the person I select will be someone who fits in with Wouter Bos' party."

Bos says his task is to revitalize the party and make sure it stands for its campaign principles of more investment to stimulate employment, less bureaucracy in the health service and lower defense spending if, as seems likely, the Labor Party becomes part of the next government. He also hints that he doesn't want to give up his personal life for his career. No wonder women are falling for the guy. He probably calls his mother twice a week, too.

A former Shell oil executive, Bos has engineered a spectacular comeback for his party. In the last election, in May 2002, Labor was seen as bureaucratic, arrogant and out of touch — it lost 50% of its support and dropped from 45 to 23 seats in parliament. But at the weekend, in the last major poll before the Jan. 22 election, Labor was in second place, four seats behind the Christian Democrats, who led the outgoing Dutch administration that was brought down after just 88 days in office by infighting within List Pim Fortuyn (lpf), one of the three coalition parties. lpf, of course, was catapulted to power by its charismatic leader, the maverick right-winger Pim Fortuyn, who was assassinated just days before the 2002 election. After Pim, the party fell asunder — and now Bos is emerging as his true heir.

Dutch political analyst Kay van de Linde, who was Fortuyn's campaign manager and spent 18 years working with U.S. campaign guru David Garth in New York, calls Bos "a typical American-style television candidate. He's cool, self-assured and projects credibility. People believe what he says. The Dutch are fed up with traditional politicians and he's the new, fresh face on the political scene."

Born near Rotterdam, Bos is the son of an ambassador and has degrees in political science and economics from the University of Amsterdam. He became a Labor M.P. in 1998 and came to prominence as Tax Minister from 2000 to 2002. As his recent poll numbers rose thanks to superb TV- debate performances, his foes avoided the personal attacks that characterized the last election and contributed to the demonization, and perhaps even the murder, of Fortuyn. But with arguments against Labor policies failing to dent Bos' popularity, the CDA and its preferred coalition partner, the Liberals, have now taken aim. Liberal leader Gerrit Zalm accused Bos of lying about Labor's financial plans. And CDA M.P. Gerda Verburg went a bit lower. "We're told the whole day how charming and attractive Bos is," she told one newspaper last week. "I can see he's got a nice ass, but a nice ass alone isn't enough to govern the country."

Labor and the CDA will almost certainly form the next coalition, signaling a return to the alliance that defined Dutch politics for more than a decade before Fortuyn. But that doesn't mean a return to business as usual. Fortuyn's legacy has moved Dutch politics to the right and, like his opponents, Bos advocates a tougher stance on immigrants and says those who fail to learn Dutch should have their welfare benefits cut. But unlike its opponents, Labor is prepared to make an extra €250 million available for integration courses. It is perhaps because of this that a recent survey concluded that 31% of ethnic minorities would vote Labor in this week's election, the highest percentage for any party.

The media and Bos' opponents say voters have a right to know who would be Prime Minister in a Labor-led government. And last Friday, Bos said he would name his candidate this week. He swears it won't be him. Sometimes in politics, you get power by not seeming to want it.

• ABI DARUVALLA/Amsterdam
• The winning ways of Labor Party leader Wouter Bos