Hans Huibers must become the new chairman of the CDA if it is up to the party board. The board has nominated 60-year-old Huibers for the vacant position, the party announced on Friday. The members can seal his appointment at the autumn congress on 11 December. If the CDA supporters then vote in favour, the former MP will be the successor to interim chairman Marnix van Rij. He is temporary chairman after the departure of Rutger Ploum.
Huibers was a Member of Parliament for the CDA in the 1990s. Before that, he was chairman of the youth wing of the Christian Democrats. In 1994 he retired from politics and held various positions in business. For example, he was a board member at a household waste plant in Alkmaar. Between 2004 and 2012, Huibers was director of the MBO council. The CDA member currently works as a manager in the food industry.
If Huibers is elected, the CDA will have a replacement for Ploum, who left in March. He resigned after a disappointing election result in which the party fell from 19 to 15 seats. In the months that followed, a turbulent period followed for the Christian Democrats: MP Pieter Omtzigt, who was popular with the supporters, expressed strong criticism and canceled his membership. Meanwhile, the party dropped in the polls, partly due to the rise of the Boer Citizen Movement and Omtzigt’s autonomous political ambitions.
Party celebrities
Several party leaders also came under fire. For example, it was announced this month that CDA leader and Minister of Finance Wopke Hoekstra had invested money in the past in a company that evaded tax through a letterbox company. Hoekstra received strong criticism in the House of Representatives, but found that he was credible enough to remain as Minister of Finance.
Shortly before that, Minister Ank Bijleveld (Defence) had resigned due to the inadequate evacuation of interpreters and other government personnel from Afghanistan. State secretary Mona Keijzer (Economic Affairs), who is loved by many CDA members, also had to leave the cabinet; she was fired after criticizing the corona policy. Keijzer then announced that he would step out of national politics.
