Mark Rutte, the Dutch leader, was at home on the evening of 13 November when his counter-terrorism chief called with news of the Islamic State attack in Paris.
“I got the message that something terrible was taking place,” he told reporters in The Hague on Wednesday (25 November).
He said it touched him because he could imagine himself in the victims’ place.
“This was very close to people’s daily lives … I was at home this time. But I could have been with friends at a concer...
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Andrew Rettman is EUobserver's foreign editor, writing about foreign and security issues since 2005. He is Polish, but grew up in the UK, and lives in Brussels. He has also written for The Guardian, The Times of London, and Intelligence Online.