The new government of the Netherlands, which will have as its main objective the fight against global warming, was sworn in on Monday, about ten months after the elections, a record for the nation formerly known as the Netherlands.
This executive known as “Rutte IV” wants to build two nuclear power plants and plans to devote 35,000 million euros (about 40,000 million dollars) in ten years to fight against climate change, a major threat to the old Holland, which has a third of its territory below sea level.
“The coronavirus has not disappeared yet, but of course there are other important issues as well,” Rutte said on Twitter, following the first meeting of the new cabinet, mentioning the need to build new houses, security and plans against climate change in a country very dependent on gas.
The Netherlands appointed a 34-year-old Minister of Climate and Energy, Rob Jetten, for the first time. The new government has set a goal of carbon neutrality by 2050.
“The government has to catch up with climate change,” Jetten told the Dutch news agency ANP, acknowledging a “considerable” task.
The executive, who took office after an official ceremony at the Noordeinde royal palace in The Hague, which has a record number of women. Of the 20 ministers, half are women and if the ministers and undersecretaries are counted, there are 14 women.
One of the most important portfolios, that of Finance, was handed over to Sigrid Kaag, who is the first woman to assume this position in the country. Because she is infected with Covid, Kaag had to swear in by videoconferencing.
His predecessor, Wopke Hoekstra, will become the head of diplomacy.
Restore confidence
Facing skepticism, Rutte, who has been prime minister since 2010, promised that this is a new beginning.
With this new mandate, this politician becomes the second leader of the European Union who has been in power for the longest time, after the Hungarian Viktor Orban.
Despite the record of 271 days that negotiations were extended after the elections held in mid-March, the governing coalition will continue to be made up of the same parties as the previous executive: the center-right formation to which Rutte belongs, the VVD; the center-left D66 to which Kaag belongs; the center-right CDA and Christen Unie, a conservative party.
Rutte resigned after a family allowance scandal, in which thousands of households were wrongly accused of receiving benefits that were not due to them.
Rutte’s resilience has earned him the label of a “Teflon” politician, who has remained in power despite scandals and political crises.
In December the leader said that with this new government he seeks to “restore confidence.”
The new executive is challenged to appease the housing crisis in this country, which is one of the most densely populated in the world.
In the Finance portfolio, Kaag, 60, can use her experience as a diplomat to defuse tensions with Brussels, since the Netherlands, together with Austria, Denmark and Sweden are part of the axis of the countries known as “frugal”, which they defend the budgetary rigor and that they are frequently confronted with the members of the south of Europe on this subject.
Over the course of this year, Rutte is on his way to becoming the longest-serving prime minister in the Netherlands, despite the fact that managing the pandemic remains a politically sensitive issue.
Far-right populist politician Thierry Baudet, known for being a skeptic of the coronavirus, has emerged as a spokesperson for a movement that last year sparked riots in the streets.
Reference-www.eleconomista.com.mx