Jan Peter Balkenende becoming PM in 2002. 'Some dude' became the most powerful man of our country 
.
Two prominent CDA (Christian Democratic) stars really hated each other and in they end they made peace and decided that neither of them would run in the 2002 elections because the CDA was going to lose anyway. The sacrificial lamb was going to become some provincial officeholder or a first term MP who looked like Harry Potter. Harry Potter become the candidate. Sh**t went wrong and Harry Potter (JP Balkenende) became PM.
As of this day there still isn't anyone who understands the mystery of Jan Peter Balkenende (and how the f**k he managed to stay on for 8 years). Maybe he fooled us all and he secretly was a huge political genius.
If we're bringing up international examples, I don't think anyone can beat Giuseppe Conte.
Hilariously enough Balkenende immediately relegated to 'some dude' status after he left as PM. He become partner at EY (they have about 200 partners in the Netherlands, so he isn't even that high in their hierarchy) and probably is frequently mistaken as small-town mayor. Isn't Conte basically Salvini's fukboi though? Chances are Salvini literally looked for 'some dude' so that he could pull the strings .
I mean, Conte was actually closer to M5S politically, and I think did some (minor) policy advising for them during the campaign, so in theory he's almost as much Di Maio's fukboi as Salvini's (of course, Di Maio wanted
himself to be PM and the only reason Conte is where he is right now is because Salvini vetoed that, but still).
