THE HAGUE (TASS): The new cabinet of ministers of the Netherlands will be able to start its work on January 10, 2022. The corresponding statement was released on Thursday by the government of the country.
The new cabinet will have 20 ministers and 9 secretaries of state. Mark Rutte, who has been in power since 2010 and leads the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (PNDD), is expected to remain prime minister. During the first week after the New Year, he will hold talks with each of the candidates for the post of minister or secretary of state, after which on January 10, the new government will be able to take up his duties.
According to published documents, Hugo de Jonge, who is and. O. Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Health, Welfare and Sports and responsible, among ot-her things, for the fight ag-ainst the coronavirus pandemic, will leave his post. This is due to the fact that this position will be transferred from the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDU) party to the Democrats-66 (D-66) party, which took second place (after the NPSD) as a result of the March 17 elections. A similar situation has developed around the post of Minister of Finance. Local media claim that this position, held by Vopke Hukstroy of the CDA, will be taken over by D-66 leader Sigrid Kag. The “Democrats-66” themselves have not yet confirmed this information, but have not denied either.
This process of forming a ruling coalition has become the longest in the history of the Netherlands. Negotiations between the parties continued almost 300 days after the elections. Ultimately, the coalition included the same parties as in 2017: NPSD, D-66, Christian Democratic Party and Christian Union.
Rutte, who will head the Dutch government for the fourth time in a row, is currently the most experienced head of government of any EU country, along with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban (who also came to power in 2010). And next August, he could break the record of Ruud Lubbers (1939-2018) as the longest-serving Prime Min-ister of the Netherlands.
The post New government of Netherlands will start working on Jan. 10 appeared first on The Frontier Post.
