Many new faces, but the choices for the new ministerial team are not daring

However long the fourth Rutte cabinet of VVD, D66, CDA and ChristenUnie will remain in place, however successful it may become, however groundbreaking or conservative – in one way it has already made history. Rutte IV is the most diverse cabinet ever. Ten of the twenty ministers are women, there will be two ministers with a non-Western migration background: Dilan Yesilgöz (Justice, VVD) and Franc Weerwind (Legal Protection, D66).

What is striking about Rutte IV – D66 and the CDA were the last parties to announce their names on Sunday – is that the VVD supplies many female ministers: five of the eight ministers. When the previous cabinet took office, Rutte was heavily criticized for the composition of his team of ministers. Cora van Nieuwenhuizen was the only female VVD member.

Nevertheless, the forthcoming cabinet is, at least in composition, not the fresh team that many people dreamed of in and outside The Hague. Only D66 has worked on real new impetus and shows by far the most courage with the choices for the cabinet. Ernst Kuipers, chairman of the National Network Acute Care, will succeed Hugo de Jonge as Minister of Health. De Jonge moves to Housing and Spatial Planning. Robbert Dijkgraaf, the world-renowned professor of theoretical physics who has no political experience at all, will become Minister of Education, Culture and Science.

Party bosses in the cabinet

For the rest, although they are relatively new faces, they are politicians with a long track record in their party. The VVD makes party chairman Christianne van der Wal minister for Nature and Nitrogen. The interim chairman of the CDA, Marnix van Rij, will be responsible for tax affairs as State Secretary.

At D66, Rob Jetten, the mainstay of leader Sigrid Kaag in the House of Representatives, will join the cabinet as Minister for Climate and Energy. Three future ministers are now deputies. Outside D66, the parties do not take any risks. The parties will explain that as a big advantage in the coming weeks. Only with experienced administrators can a cabinet survive in a politically unstable time. But the new impetus that was promised to citizens is in any case difficult to see from a personnel point of view.

The composition of Rutte IV is favorable for the namesake of the cabinet, Mark Rutte, Prime Minister since 2010. First the portfolio breakdown: some difficult files, which may be subject to parliamentary inquiries in the coming period, have been outsourced to the other coalition parties.

Also read: D66 wins heavy posts, CDA seems to be giving up power and influence

D66 will be affected by the corona crisis (Ernst Kuipers) and the Groningen gas file (Hans Vijlbrief, Mining). The festering allowance scandal, which Rutte III fell about almost a year ago, is a shared responsibility of the VVD and CDA. On behalf of the VVD, Member of Parliament Aukje de Vries, as State Secretary, must work on the abolition of the allowance system. CDA member Van Rij is about the reform of the tax authorities.

Competitors for Rutte

Also beneficial for Rutte: two of the three competing party leaders are safe in the cabinet and not in the House of Representatives. The advantage of this is that they are more bound by agreements within the cabinet, and it is difficult for them to argue without causing a crisis.

Sigrid Kaag will be awarded Finance, and this heavy portfolio will enable her to broaden her profile as a director. CDA leader Wopke Hoekstra leaves Finance for Foreign Affairs. That is a remarkable choice. In the first place, because Hoekstra will have to work on his complicated relationship with (Southern) European countries during the first period of his ministerial position.

Hoekstra’s obstinate attitude when at the beginning of the corona crisis was asked to provide these countries financially, cost him a lot of credit. “We were not empathetic enough,” Hoekstra said later. But the image of Hoekstra (and of the Netherlands) as frugal, businesslike and unsympathetic was established. Now that he is becoming the face of the Netherlands abroad, he will have to show a different profile.

A foreign minister is usually on a trip. That is a disadvantage for a political leader, for example D66 leader Hans van Mierlo, who held this post during Purple I. As a party leader, he was largely invisible, and it was impossible for him to influence his brainchild, a cabinet without confessionals. For Hoekstra, who had presented himself as prime minister-in-the-waiting room during the election campaign, this new job is tactically a major disadvantage. Rutte, in turn, may see an important opponent disappear from the Hague scene.

Only Gert-Jan Segers (ChristenUnie) will take a seat in the House again. Carola Schouten remains Deputy Prime Minister, but is exchanging Agriculture for Poverty Policy, Participation and Pensions. Her successor will be the Groningen deputy Henk Staghouwer.

The ChristenUnie will be the coalition party to watch out for in the coming period. The smallest governing party has the least enthusiastic supporters. There are concerns about the coalition agreement, which according to critics in the party too little conveys the identity of the party. Segers also put pressure on medical ethics in advance. It has been agreed in the coalition that it will be a ‘free issue‘ is becoming. In other words: MPs must know for themselves whether they will vote for or against any bills in this area. Segers already said that if the House adopts a completed life law, which D66 wants, his party will not implement it with this cabinet.

–