He served for four years as economics minister in a centre-left coalition

Longest-serving Dutch PM, Ruud Lubbers, dies aged 78

The Netherlands’ longest-serving prime minister, Ruud Lubbers, who pulled his country out of recession while struggling to reform the Dutch welfare state, died on Wednesday aged 78.

The Christian Democrat who led his country through the 1980s into the 90s and went on to serve as the United Nation’s High Commissioner for Refugees, died at his home “in the presence of his wife and children,” the government said.