A poll conducted among 150 economists and financial journalists by the magazine Historisch Nieuwsblad has concluded that Gerrit Zalm was the best finance minister of the past 100 years. He was also the longest-serving finance minister, from 1994 until 2002.

He received 33 percent of the vote and was particularly valued for his strict budget policy, under which the state does not respond to economic fluctuations, which soon became known as the Zalm Standard.

Receiving the award from the magazine’s editor-in-chief, Mr Zalm said, “This is a pleasant surprise. I haven’t been gone that long and I thought people would only remember the negative things about my time in office. Personally I would have voted for Jelle Zijlstra.”

Zijlstra actually ended in third place. In the 1960s he was the first finance minister to freeze government spending for any length of time. He received 11 percent of the vote.

In second place with 19 percent was Piet Lieftinck, finance minister from 1946 until 1952, whose main achievement was to purge the post-war money supply of “black money”. He also oversaw the devaluation of the guilder in 1949.