Lubbers, Ruud

Dutch politician, prime minister of the Netherlands 1982–94. Leader of the right-of-centre Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA), he was viewed by some as an ideological heir to UK prime minister Margaret Thatcher, campaigning on the slogan ‘more market, less government’. He was Dutch minister for economic affairs 1973–77, and between 1982 and 1994 became the longest-serving prime minister in Dutch history. His governments cut public spending and launched deregulation and privitization programmes. In 2001–05 he served as United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Born in Rotterdam, he studied economics at Erasmus University Rotterdam. He was initially a member of the Catholic People's Party (KVP), from which the CDA was formed in 1977.