{"id":181087,"date":"2025-08-28T12:06:40","date_gmt":"2025-08-28T10:06:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=181087"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:27:54","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:27:54","slug":"het-ministerschap-van-eppo-bruins-ik-hoop-dat-men-met-enige-genade-zal-terugkijken","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2025\/08\/28\/het-ministerschap-van-eppo-bruins-ik-hoop-dat-men-met-enige-genade-zal-terugkijken\/","title":{"rendered":"Eppo Bruins\u2019 tenure as education minister: ‘I hope people will look back with some grace’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eppo Bruins knew from the start he would never be popular, and would later describe his own cuts to education and research as painful and ugly. A look back at his tenure in Dick Schoof\u2019s government.<\/p>\n

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Minister Eppo Bruins at the Opening Academic Year 2024.<\/span><\/p>

\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tArie Kers<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>

The announcement that Eppo Bruins was to be appointed education minister on behalf of NSC raised more than a few eyebrows. Why was a former ChristenUnie MP joining this destructive cabinet full of populists and extremists?<\/p>\n

The new coalition government \u2013 made up of the PVV, VVD, NSC and BBB \u2013 was dead set on slashing education and research budgets. The PVV in particular could barely contain its glee, hailing the cuts as a victory over \u2018activism\u2019 at universities. As chair of the AWTI advisory board, hadn\u2019t Bruins advocated for additional<\/em> spending on education and research? In his TV show, Arjen Lubach highlighted the painful contrast<\/a> between Bruins\u2019s position as minister and statements he had made in his previous role shortly before.<\/p>\n

But he knew what he was getting into when he joined the Schoof government: by May 2024, the four parties had already set out their proposed cuts in an outline coalition agreement \u2013 before Bruins was appointed.<\/p>\n\t

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Who is Eppo Bruins?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Eppo Bruins was born in 1969. After obtaining a PhD in nuclear physics, he pursued a career in science. He was a member of the CDA until 2011 but left the party when it joined the first Rutte government, which relied on the support of the PVV. He then joined the ChristenUnie, serving as an MP from December 2015 to March 2021.<\/p>\n

Prior to his tenure as education minister on behalf of NSC, which required him to resign his membership of the ChristenUnie, he served as chair of the Advisory Council for Science, Technology and Innovation (AWTI).<\/p>\n

Bruins did not have a religious upbringing, but converted to evangelical Christianity when he was 18. Speaking to the Nederlands Dagblad about his role as education minister, he said<\/a>: \u201cGod\u2019s guidance is everywhere… I wouldn\u2019t go so far as to say that God wants me here. (…) At the same time, though, I wouldn\u2019t have done it if I\u2019d had any doubts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t<\/div>\n

Wallet<\/h2>

Aware of the strange optics, Bruins seized every opportunity to distance himself from the government\u2019s policy. He called the cuts painful and ugly, but made it clear that his hands were tied. The government wanted to increase defence spending and put more money in the pockets of Dutch taxpayers, he kept repeating.<\/p>\n

Why did he decide to accept this role? Was it vanity? After all, the Minister of Education, Culture and Science is at the centre of power \u2013 and attention. Or was his main motivation a desire to minimise the damage this government would cause? Someone would have to do the job, so why not him? At least he would know what he was doing.<\/p>\n

The latter seems to be his own explanation. \u201cI hope people will look back with some grace and say: he did do his best\u201d, he said less than a year ago at the opening of the previous academic year. He was determined to make sure that \u2018none of the valuable stuff\u2019 would be destroyed.<\/p>\n\n\t

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