| Part of the Politics series |
 |
|---|
 Politicsportal |
In Dutch politics, political assistants (PAs; Dutch : politiek assistent) can be appointed to advise cabinet members on political strategy. They are hired by most ministers and state secretaries to inform them about political sentiments of the different parties in parliament. Political assistants became common in the 1990s after having been around for several decades, and the position became subject to specific regulations in 2003.
The Netherlands has a separation between government and politics. Cabinet members – ministers and state secretaries who are politicians – lead their ministry's apparatus of civil servants, who are no political appointees and are expected to provide politically neutral advice. [1] [2] Political assistants are an exception, as they are hired by cabinet members to work as a civil servant for their ministry. [1] They report to the ministry's secretary-general. [2] If a cabinet member resigns, their political assistant has to leave within six months. [1]
Political assistants are responsible for keeping track of the positions of political parties and for gauging support for legislative proposals by cabinet members. They talk to members of parliament, make deals on behalf of cabinet members, and prepare them for debates and speeches. Vrij Nederland magazine noted that the exact tasks of the function have differed over time and across political parties. [1] [2] Political assistants mostly operate in the background of the public political sphere, and they are prohibited from engaging in public relations management. According to Vrij Nederland, this rule is often violated, as political assistants often communicate with journalists. [2]
The names of political assistants are not published by the government, and researchers and journalists have relied on sources such as social media platform LinkedIn to find them. [1]
Political assistants did not become prevalent until the 1990s. The hiring of a political advisor by agricultural minister Sicco Mansholt was criticized by members of parliament in 1947, who argued ministers should possess political instincts themselves. In the subsequent period, only some cabinet members had a political assistant, the prime minister usually being amongst them. [2]
Parliamentary questions were asked to the first Kok cabinet in 1994, as the number of PAs had grown to seven. After the opposition had argued this would undermine the functioning of the apparatus of civil servants, Prime Minister Wim Kok responded that they would surely leave simultaneously with cabinet members. Vrij Nederland later concluded that one third of the political assistants of the Kok cabinets stayed in government for some time afterwards, while another third of them worked as lobbyist as of 2024. It has since become customary for almost every cabinet member to have a political assistant, with some having two. [2] Regulations specific to the role were enacted in 2003. [1] However, the Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) has advised that rules should be tightened to prevent conflicts of interest, as political assistants can be influential in political decision making. [2] When the Schoof cabinet was installed in 2024, the NRC newspaper noted that most political assistants were around the age of thirty and were previously employed by a political party or ministry. [1]
Some political assistants have become politicians afterwards. These include Dick Benschop, Ruben Brekelmans, Bart van den Brink, Thom van Campen, Mark Harbers, Sophie Hermans, Hugo de Jonge, Liesje Schreinemacher, Peter Valstar, and Jack de Vries. [2] [1]
The second Balkenende cabinet was the executive branch of the Government of the Netherlands from 27 May 2003 until 7 July 2006. The cabinet was formed by the Christian-democratic Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA), the conservative-liberal People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), and the social-liberal Democrats 66 (D66) after the election of 2003. The cabinet was a centre-right coalition and had a slim majority in the House of Representatives with Christian Democratic Leader Jan Peter Balkenende serving as Prime Minister. Liberal Leader Gerrit Zalm, a former Minister of Finance, served as Deputy Prime Minister and returned as Minister of Finance, while former Progressive-Liberal Leader Thom de Graaf served as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister without Portfolio for the Interior.
Gerrit Zalm is a retired Dutch politician of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) and businessman.
Femke Halsema is a Dutch politician and filmmaker. On 27 June 2018, she was appointed Mayor of Amsterdam and began serving a six-year term on 12 July 2018. She is the first woman to hold the position on a non-interim basis. She previously was a member of the House of Representatives for the leftist green party GroenLinks from 1998 to 2011, and served as the party's parliamentary leader from 2002 to 2010.
Maria Cornelia Frederika "Rita" Verdonk is a Dutch politician and businesswoman formerly affiliated with the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) and later Proud of the Netherlands (TON), which she founded in 2007. Since 2022, she has been a municipal councillor of The Hague, elected on the list led by Richard de Mos.
Following the 2006 Dutch general election, held on November 22, a process of cabinet formation started, involving negotiations about which coalition partners to form a common programme of policy and to divide the posts in cabinet. On February 22, 2007 it resulted in the formation of the Fourth Balkenende cabinet.
Eimert van Middelkoop is a retired Dutch politician of the Christian Union (CU) party and teacher. He is the chairman of the Institute for Multiparty Democracy since 20 January 2018.
Ronald Hans Anton Plasterk is a Dutch retired politician of the Labour Party (PvdA). He has a PhD degree in biology, specialising in molecular genetics. He is founder and CEO of Frame Cancer Therapeutics. He was appointed professor at the University of Amsterdam in September 2018.
Khadija Arib is a Moroccan-Dutch politician of the Labour Party, who served as Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Netherlands from 12 December 2015 to 7 April 2021. In the 2016 Speaker of the Dutch House of Representatives election on 13 January, she was elected to the position, which she had served as Acting Speaker since the resignation of Anouchka van Miltenburg on 12 December 2015. Arib became a member of the House of Representatives following the 1998 Dutch general election and served until 2022, with a brief interruption between 2006 and 2007.
Jelmer Jan Steenhuis is a Dutch creator of puzzles and games. Steenhuis is best known for his weekly puzzles in the newspaper NRC Handelsblad and magazine Vrij Nederland.
Maria Cornelia Gezina "Mona" Keijzer is a Dutch politician and former civil servant who is the minister of housing and spatial planning in the Schoof cabinet since 2024. A member of the Farmer–Citizen Movement, she won a seat in the House of Representatives in the 2023 Dutch general election.
Eric Derk Wiebes is a Dutch politician who served as Minister of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy in the Third Rutte cabinet since 26 October 2017 until 15 January 2021. He is a member of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD).
Christianne van der Wal-Zeggelink is a Dutch politician of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD).
Hendrikus Wilhelmus Maria "Dick" Schoof is a Dutch civil servant and politician who has served as the prime minister of the Netherlands in the Schoof Cabinet since 2 July 2024.
Sophia Theodora Monique "Sophie" Hermans is a Dutch politician currently serving as Second Deputy Prime Minister of the Netherlands and Minister of Climate and Green Growth in the Schoof cabinet. Hermans previously served as a member of the House of Representatives representing People's Party for Freedom and Democracy between 2017 and 2024.
Christiaan "Chris" Stoffer is a Dutch politician who has served as Leader of the Reformed Political Party since 25 August 2023.
Early general elections were held in the Netherlands on 22 November 2023 to elect the members of the House of Representatives. The elections had been expected to be held in 2025 but a snap election was called after the fourth Rutte cabinet collapsed on 7 July 2023 due to immigration policy disagreements between the coalition parties. The incumbent Prime Minister Mark Rutte announced that he would not lead his party into the election and that he would retire from politics.
Laurens Antonius Josephus Maria Dassen is a Dutch politician and former banker. Dassen grew up in Knegsel, studied business administration at Radboud University and worked for ABN AMRO for six years. He has been a member of Volt Netherlands since its foundation in 2018 and was elected to the House of Representatives as his party's lijsttrekker in the 2021 general election.
Mariëlle Lucienne Josepha Paul is a Dutch politician. A member of the conservative liberal People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), she was elected to the House of Representatives in the 2021 general election, and she became Minister for Primary and Secondary Education as part of the fourth Rutte cabinet in July 2023. She continued with the same portfolio in the Schoof cabinet as State Secretary for Primary and Secondary Education and Equal Opportunities starting in July 2024. Paul previously worked as a communications director for several multinational corporations.
The fourth Rutte cabinet was the cabinet of the Netherlands from 10 January 2022 until 2 July 2024. The cabinet was a continuation of the third Rutte cabinet and was formed by the conservative liberal People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), the social liberal Democrats 66 (D66) and the Christian democratic Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) and Christian Union (CU) after the election of 2021. The cabinet fell on 7 July 2023, after failing to reach an agreement on separate treatment of refugees fleeing from war. It continued serving as a demissionary cabinet until the Schoof cabinet was sworn in on 2 July 2024.
Richard van Zwol is a Dutch civil servant who has been a member of the Council of State since 2017. He led three government ministries as secretary general: General Affairs (2007–2011), Finance (2011–2013) and Interior and Kingdom Relations (2013–2017). A member of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA), Van Zwol has been involved in several cabinet formations, including as formateur and informateur in 2023–2024.
