The Running Prime Minister: Meeting the Youngest Leader of the Netherlands Through a Runner’s Story

Photos: Renata Jansen

 

Some encounters stay with you from the very beginning, even if you don’t yet know why. You meet someone briefly, share a stretch of road, a conversation, a small act of kindness, and later you realise the connection never really disappeared.

I first met Frank van der Endt during the Marathon des Sables, that strange moving universe in the Sahara where normal life fades and everything reduces to heat, sand, and forward motion. The race covers roughly 250 kilometers over several stages, often in temperatures climbing above forty degrees. You carry your world on your back — food, sleeping gear, mandatory safety equipment — and after a few days everyone becomes simply human again. People are tired, doubts appear quickly, and generosity suddenly matters more than performance.

Frank was one of those people who made the days lighter from the start— for example sharing his energy gel with me when it was very welcome. In a race like that, small gestures stay with you.

After the race our paths didn’t cross much in real life, but the connection continued naturally through occasional messages and through the images he shared — runs through Amsterdam at dawn, empty streets reflecting soft light, a city that seems to belong only to early risers before the day begins. I once wrote another piece inspired by those photographs, and I will link it again because they capture that atmosphere better than words.

Recently, one of his messages caught my attention for a completely different reason. He had been spending time running with Rob Jetten, who is about to become the youngest Prime Minister in the history of the Netherlands.

I don’t know Jetten personally, and what interested me was not politics itself but the picture that emerged from Frank’s descriptions. People sometimes joined along the way, conversations started easily, and what struck him most was accessibility. As he wrote to me, Jetten seemed genuinely interested in the people around him, not performing for them. One detail made me smile: he has apparently been known to share his personal phone number quite freely — something that may become harder once his life changes completely, but an instinct that says a lot about openness.

Frank also used a word that stayed with me: polarisation. In a time when positions often harden quickly, he sees in him someone inclined toward dialogue and connection rather than division. Hearing that through the lens of running made sense to me. When you run next to someone, differences tend to soften; conversation becomes cooperation.

Frank mentioned as well that during demanding campaign periods, when fatigue showed on many faces, Jetten appeared steady and energized. Not loud strength, but the quieter kind that lasts.

I have always been interested in people who manage to keep movement as part of daily life even when responsibility grows heavy. Physical activity is often treated as an extra, something optional squeezed into busy schedules, yet it quietly shapes how we think and react. It creates space, slows reactions, and makes listening easier.

On Monday, 23 February 2026, Rob Jetten will be officially sworn in by King Willem-Alexander as Prime Minister of the Netherlands, becoming the youngest leader in the country’s history. For most people, that moment will belong to ceremony and headlines. For Frank, I imagine it will also carry the memory of ordinary mornings and conversations that started simply by going out for a run.

The distance between a desert race and a royal appointment is large, yet life has a way of connecting unlikely moments. Sometimes all it takes is continuing forward and staying open to the people you meet along the way.