The Rutte IV cabinet will be presented today on the platform of Noordeinde Palace. But that’s not all on the agenda. Five questions about the presentation of the cabinet to political reporter Marloes Lemsom.
1. What will happen today?
“All new ministers and state secretaries visit the king today and are then officially installed as minister. They then say ‘Yes, I promise’ or ‘So help me God Almighty’. Then they nod to the King to introduce themselves. , because shaking hands is of course not allowed.”
“After that, they go to the platform to have their picture taken. After the platform scene, the official transfer from the old to the new ministers is for all ministers. The new Minister of Finance, Sigrid Kaag, would then hold the key to the treasury of Wopke Hoekstra. Only Kaag is not there today, because she has corona.”
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2. A landing scene in times of corona: what does that look like?
“Getting 20 people, 19 ministers and the king, at a distance of one and a half meters from each other in a photo: that will be quite a challenge. Yet it seems to fit on the stairs of Noordeinde Palace, the place where the traditional photo is taken. the certainty there is a test photo taken with test subjects, to make sure they all fit in one photo.”
“The swearing-in ceremony and the platform photo are this time at Noordeinde Palace. Normally that is in Huis ten Bosch Palace, where the king lives, but Noordeinde was chosen in connection with corona.”
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3. What striking new faces will we see?
“He is 31 years old: Maarten van Ooijen, the new State Secretary for Youth Care and Prevention. Besides him, there are more relatively young ministers in the new cabinet: Rob Jetten is 34, Dennis Wiersma 35, and Liesje Schreinemacher 38.”
“A new face in politics, but well known for the corona crisis, is Ernst Kuipers. As chairman of the board of directors of Erasmus MC and chairman of the National Network Acute Care, we have already seen him a lot. Robbert Dijkgraaf is of course also a striking person. new minister: previously he often appeared as a professor in De Wereld Draait Door.”
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4. How are the new ministers trained?
“The new ministers have probably already read a lot of documents in recent days and they will continue to do so in the coming weeks, actually years. They receive huge bags with documents that they have to plow through at home. help new ministers and state secretaries as much as possible with everything that is going on in their department.”
“You may think: why isn’t there a longer transition period, so that the predecessor can calmly train the new minister? That is not possible politically, because in the end only one minister can be politically responsible if something goes wrong.”
5. How important is it that ministers understand their portfolio?
“It is of course very useful if you, as a Minister of Health, know a lot about healthcare, and as a Minister of Economic Affairs you know a lot about the economy. Rutte IV contains quite a few ministers who are specialists in their ministry. Robbert Dijkgraaf, the new Minister of Education, himself a professor, Gunay Uslu, the State Secretary for Culture and Media, comes from the cultural sector himself.”
“The disadvantage is that they have no political experience yet. There are also ministers who have been in politics for some time, but are given new portfolios that they have not worked with before. Hugo de Jonge becomes Minister for Housing and Kajsa Ollongren becomes Minister of Defence.”
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