Letschert will become minister of Education

Rianne Letschert will become the new minister of Education, Culture and Science. D66 confirmed this on Friday afternoon. In recent weeks, the chair of the Executive Board of Maastricht University led the coalition negotiations.

“The ministerial post is a dog’s job, not a position of honour”, Letschert said last August in the daily newspaper De Limburger. But she did seem willing: “If everyone lets the complicated jobs pass them by, we will not make any progress.”

D66 asked her last December to act as informateur. She is valued by incoming prime minister Rob Jetten and she apparently also gets on well with the party leaders of the CDA and the VVD.

Political ambitions

In the past, Letschert was professor of International Law and Victimology in Tilburg. In 2016 she became rector of Maastricht University and from 2021 she was chair of the Executive Board. Her political ambitions were no secret. In September, the university newspaper Observant was already speculating about it.

Her colleague at the ministry will be state secretary Judith Tielen (VVD), the party itself reports. She is currently state secretary for Youth, Prevention and Sport in the Schoof cabinet. Earlier, Tielen was, among other things, a marketing lecturer at HU University of Applied Sciences Utrecht. In 2017 she entered the House of Representatives for the liberals.

The ministers will still have to divide the portfolios among themselves, but it is obvious that Letschert will take responsibility for secondary vocational education, higher education and science.

Defence

VVD leader Dilan Yeşilgöz will become minister of Defence. She too will have dealings with universities and universities of applied sciences, as a substantial part of the increased defence budget is to go towards knowledge and innovation.