The Netherlands’ new cabinet will be introducing themselves to their EU counterparts over the coming weeks, but Covid-19 may stop new liberal finance chief Sigrid Kaag making it to Brussels for Monday’s eurogroup. We profile Kaag and whether she can overturn years of Dutch resistance to the EU’s economic integration
Liberal vs Ordoliberal
The Netherlands’ new finance minister has started life in her job in circumstances that are quintessentially 2022: in quarantine and with police security guarding her home, writes Mehreen Khan in Brussels.
Sigrid Kaag, former leader of the Dutch liberal Democrats (D66), was the only minister not present at Netherlands’ cabinet inauguration this week, having tested positive for Covid-19 days prior. Instead, her swearing in ceremony was conducted over videocall.
In another sign of our times, additional police security and surveillance cameras were yesterday installed around Kaag’s home after a man brandishing a burning torch threatened her residence last week. It is the latest case of intimidation and violence aimed at Dutch ministers during the pandemic.
As the country’s first female finance minister and an avowed internationalist, as well as being pro-European, Kaag has attracted plenty of opprobrium from her political opponents on the far-right, who often rail against her “cosmopolitan elitism”.
The 60-year-old polyglot, who is married to a Palestinian and has mixed-race children, has also spoken powerfully about racism in the Netherlands — making her a hate figure for anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders.
But Kaag’s political adversaries could not stop her from leading D66 to a surprise surge in elections last March, reversing years of stagnant support to become the second-largest party in the country behind Mark Rutte’s rightwing VVD. Kaag celebrated the electoral triumph by dancing on the tables — literally.
The finance ministry berth is a switch for the former UN diplomat, who served as trade minister and then foreign minister in the last government. She will take over the finance job from hawkish Christian Democrat Wopke Hoekstra, who made his name in Brussels leading an alliance of smaller northern countries to stifle French plans for fiscal federalism.
Kaag’s instincts are likely to be less hostile on topics such as revamping budgetary rules, joint EU borrowing and fiscal risk-sharing. Her presence around the eurogroup table should help rebuild trust with southern capitals that often found themselves in Hoekstra’s line of fire. In a subtle act of trolling, Hoekstra becomes the Netherlands’ new chief diplomat as foreign minister.
It remains an open question how far Kaag can lead an intellectual revolution in the Dutch finance ministry, overturning its hard-wired ordoliberalism and deep-seated suspicion of ever closer economic union. Tellingly, the new coalition agreement made only vague statements about the future of the Stability and Growth Pact and the EU’s pandemic recovery fund.
Kaag may be forced to miss her maiden eurogroup meeting in Brussels next Monday, as her quarantine is only due to end the day before. Even if she makes it, her fellow ministers and the rest of Brussels will probably have to wait a while longer before the Netherlands reveals its hand on the future of the eurozone.
Kaag became Finance Minister?
Good news for EU.
Why it’s Netherlands and Dutch and but Netherlands and Netherlandisch it Dutchland and Dutch?
Change in our stupid EU stance is fine but Kaag makes me throw up anytime she opens her mouth.
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The Netherlands’ new cabinet will be introducing themselves to their EU counterparts over the coming weeks, but Covid-19 may stop new liberal finance chief Sigrid Kaag making it to Brussels for Monday’s eurogroup. We profile Kaag and whether she can overturn years of Dutch resistance to the EU’s economic integration
Liberal vs Ordoliberal
The Netherlands’ new finance minister has started life in her job in circumstances that are quintessentially 2022: in quarantine and with police security guarding her home, writes Mehreen Khan in Brussels.
Sigrid Kaag, former leader of the Dutch liberal Democrats (D66), was the only minister not present at Netherlands’ cabinet inauguration this week, having tested positive for Covid-19 days prior. Instead, her swearing in ceremony was conducted over videocall.
In another sign of our times, additional police security and surveillance cameras were yesterday installed around Kaag’s home after a man brandishing a burning torch threatened her residence last week. It is the latest case of intimidation and violence aimed at Dutch ministers during the pandemic.
As the country’s first female finance minister and an avowed internationalist, as well as being pro-European, Kaag has attracted plenty of opprobrium from her political opponents on the far-right, who often rail against her “cosmopolitan elitism”.
The 60-year-old polyglot, who is married to a Palestinian and has mixed-race children, has also spoken powerfully about racism in the Netherlands — making her a hate figure for anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders.
But Kaag’s political adversaries could not stop her from leading D66 to a surprise surge in elections last March, reversing years of stagnant support to become the second-largest party in the country behind Mark Rutte’s rightwing VVD. Kaag celebrated the electoral triumph by dancing on the tables — literally.
The finance ministry berth is a switch for the former UN diplomat, who served as trade minister and then foreign minister in the last government. She will take over the finance job from hawkish Christian Democrat Wopke Hoekstra, who made his name in Brussels leading an alliance of smaller northern countries to stifle French plans for fiscal federalism.
Kaag’s instincts are likely to be less hostile on topics such as revamping budgetary rules, joint EU borrowing and fiscal risk-sharing. Her presence around the eurogroup table should help rebuild trust with southern capitals that often found themselves in Hoekstra’s line of fire. In a subtle act of trolling, Hoekstra becomes the Netherlands’ new chief diplomat as foreign minister.
It remains an open question how far Kaag can lead an intellectual revolution in the Dutch finance ministry, overturning its hard-wired ordoliberalism and deep-seated suspicion of ever closer economic union. Tellingly, the new coalition agreement made only vague statements about the future of the Stability and Growth Pact and the EU’s pandemic recovery fund.
Kaag may be forced to miss her maiden eurogroup meeting in Brussels next Monday, as her quarantine is only due to end the day before. Even if she makes it, her fellow ministers and the rest of Brussels will probably have to wait a while longer before the Netherlands reveals its hand on the future of the eurozone.
Kaag became Finance Minister?
Good news for EU.
Why it’s Netherlands and Dutch and but Netherlands and Netherlandisch it Dutchland and Dutch?
Change in our stupid EU stance is fine but Kaag makes me throw up anytime she opens her mouth.