Ingrid van Engelshoven confirms that she will not return to the Rutte IV cabinet. The outgoing Minister of Education thought her ministry was ‘fantastic’, but now wants to ‘provide room for new blood’.
This site reported earlier this month, based on sources from The Hague, that Van Engelshoven would not be running for a second term as minister. Party leader Sigrid Kaag and deputy faction leader Rob Jetten had known this for much longer, Van Engelshoven said in an explanation. ,,I reported it to Sigrid and Rob early on, I think last year. There is a time to come and a time to go.”
Van Engelshoven was party chairman of D66 for six years from 2007, became alderman in The Hague in 2010 and in 2017 she was a Member of Parliament for six months before entering the cabinet. ,,That means that I have been at the top of the party for fourteen years. I see the ministry as a crown on my work for the party. Super interesting and very honorable to do. But you also have to let it go. I want to make room for new blood.”
women’s quota
The party leader of D66, Sigrid Kaag, thanks Van Engelshoven for ‘her tireless efforts’. “Thanks to Ingrid, we have distanced ourselves from the efficiency thinking in higher education. Thanks to Ingrid, there is finally a women’s quota. And thanks to Ingrid, there is a renewed historical canon.”
Kaag emphasizes Van Engelshoven’s ‘long track record’ within D66. “She got our party up and running as chairman after a number of difficult years and thus laid the foundation for the work that we can do for the country in the coming years.”
Spread bed
According to Van Engelshoven, her successor at the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science will end up in a mixed bed. “I am very happy with the substantial investment in higher education.” In recent years she has argued several times for an extra billion euros for education and research. It eventually became 500 million euros, in the form of a fund for research. “That really prepares something for a new cabinet. Sometimes you have to prepare something to make it a reality later on.”
There will also be more money for culture. “Just about everything that has been cut back under Halbe Zijlstra will be added again.” The VVD State Secretary for Culture in the first Rutte cabinet cut subsidies for the cultural sector for 200 million euros.
The Hague square kilometres
The D66 politician thinks it will be ‘difficult’ to let go of Hague politics. “But the opportunity to look beyond these square kilometers in The Hague is also an attractive prospect.” She does not yet know what she will do when Rutte IV is on the platform. “I’m going to think about that first.”
She does, however, want to ‘serve social goals’. She does not know whether this will be the case in her current policy areas – education and culture. “The cultural sector is close to my heart. As a visitor, I will in any case remain closely involved in this.”
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