![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/GettyImages-2242660764-1024x683.jpg\")
Timmermans indeed worked hard to change his image. He sought to convey a more energetic, healthier politician campaigning across the country. | Dingena Mol\/ANP\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n\u201cHe has a handicap, because he\u2019s perceived as this relatively well-off cosmopolitan\u201d \u2014\u00a0an image that creates tension with the idea of defending \u201cthe interests of ordinary Dutch citizens,\u201d said de Lange.<\/p>\n
Over the years, Timmermans has grappled with being seen as arrogant after years of keeping his head out of the country \u2014\u00a0first, as state secretary of EU affairs and minister of foreign affairs for seven years, followed by his tenure at the European Commission for nine years, said Klusman, who is the CEO of the BKB campaigning agency.<\/p>\n
When he came back to the Netherlands in 2023, Dutch citizens saw Timmermans as someone who was lecturing them \u2014\u00a0\u201ctelling them what to do, and at the same time somebody who had lost complete contact with what the Netherlands had become,\u201d Klusman said. By that time, Klusman pointed out, the country had become widely dominated by right-wing politicians distrustful of the EU.<\/p>\n
Timmermans indeed worked hard to change his image. He sought to convey a more energetic, healthier politician campaigning across the country. | Dingena Mol\/ANP\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n
For a man who had been in charge of devising the core of the Green Deal \u2014 now used in a counter-campaign by portraying it as killing Europe\u2019s businesses \u2014 it was not a smooth landing.<\/p>\n