Wopke Hoekstra succeeds Hugo de Jonge as party leader of the CDA. The party board unanimously decided this on Friday evening, reports CDA party chairman Rutger Ploum. Twitter. Hoekstra is also currently Minister of Finance.
Earlier in the evening, CDA MP Pieter Omtzigt said against News hour that he thought Hoekstra should lead the party. Omtzigt paid a visit to Hoekstra’s home on Friday evening. Over the past 24 hours, both gentlemen were explicitly associated as successors to De Jonge.
Omtzigt also speaks up Twitter his support for Hoekstra. “I want to support Wopke to guide our party and our country through this extremely difficult period”, he writes, among other things.
That support from Omtzigt will feel good for Hoekstra. During the previous CDA party leader election in July, Omtzigt narrowly lost the battle to De Jonge.
Hoekstra was initially considered a favorite for that position, but he surprisingly withdrew a month before the election. “The (party leadership, ed.) Asks for other things that you can be good at,” he said at the time.
Party chairman Pieter Heerma was pleased with Hoekstra’s choice on Friday. “Very good news that Wopke Hoekstra is stepping forward to become party leader.”
Hoekstra is popular with voters, according to research by, among others One today. That popularity continued to haunt De Jonge after he became party leader. Although people were grumpy that Hoekstra would thank him for the job, they also saw that he seemed cut out for it.
De Jonge is too busy as a minister during the corona crisis
De Jonge immediately dismissed the party leader on Thursday evening, because he found the job to be too difficult in combination with the ministerial position. He will also not be on the list for the upcoming parliamentary elections. He will remain on as Minister of Health.
In recent months, De Jonge has focused almost exclusively on the corona crisis. “I have come to the conclusion that I cannot fully fulfill both responsibilities. Responsibility for tackling the corona crisis must come first,” he wrote in a letter to CDA members.
In addition, he said that the CDA deserves a party leader who “can devote all the time and energy to the party. That is not given to me now.”
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