‘Tax Haven’ No More? Rutte Starts Leaning Left in Dutch Election
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In the early hours of the morning on Oct. 5, 2018, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s phone lit up with a text message: “Mark are you awake? I need to talk to you.” It was Paul Polman, then chief executive officer of Unilever Plc.
Polman told Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad sometime later that he sent that text because he wanted to tell Rutte about a decision made by the Anglo-Dutch personal care products company before it was made public. Unilever that day announced that it was abandoning plans to consolidate its headquarters in the Netherlands, settling instead for London.