While you might have thought the Dutch cabinet formation process was finished, the official Rutte IV cabinet has not been fully announced yet.
The list of 29 ministers will be announced this Sunday but sources from The Hague have already confirmed some of their names and positions in this new cabinet, reports the NOS. 😱
Old and new faces
To give you a little recap, Rutte IV is a coalition between VVD (Rutte’s party), Democrats 66 (Sigrid Kaag), Christian Democratic Appeal (Wopke Hoekstra), and ChristenUnie (Gert-Jan Segers).
Many familiar members will return including Kaag, Hoekstra, De Jonge (the current health minister in the Netherlands), and Rutte, of course.
A familiar team
While some names and positions have yet to be confirmed, rumour has it the most important posts will be handed to those who have already enjoyed powerful positions…
For example, while Hugo de Jonge will be stepping down from his position as Minister for Health, he is expected to step into an equally important role as the new Minister of Housing and Spatial Planning. Will he keep the beard for this role? Who knows!
Wopke Hoekstra is expected to make the leap from the Minister of Finance to Minister of Foreign Affairs. Sigrid Kaag will then take on Hoekstra’s former role, becoming Minsiter of Finance.
While it’s not surprising that things are looking very similar for Rutte’s fifth cabinet, some are certainly a bit annoyed by this reshuffle — especially considering the cabinet has spoken of a “new” governing culture.
Not everything is the same
But for those of you who aren’t particularly fond of this coalition, there are still some changes to this cabinet. 🎉
The cabinet will have more VVD women than men in Rutte IV, many of whom were members of parliament — certainly a nice addition. 😌
Rutte IV will also welcome a very young minister — at 31 years old, Maarten van Ooijen will be appointed as the State Secretary for Youth and Prevention.
Of course, nothing is set in stone yet — just brace yourselves for something… very familiar.
What do you think of the leaked minister positions? Tell us your thoughts in the comments. 💭
Feature Image: European People’s Party/Wikimedia Commons/CC2.0
