Former VVD politician Rudolf de Korte died at the age of 83. He made a career in business with, among others, Shell and Unilever, and climbed up with the VVD in 1977 after leading a successful election campaign.
De Korte was one of the confidants of VVD leader Nijpels in the 1980s. In March 1986 he became Minister of the Interior and after elections later that year Minister of Economic Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister in the second cabinet of Ruud Lubbers.
By the way, Lubbers would have preferred someone else to be in that post, and there was repeated friction in the cabinet between the two.
Reflowed
De Korte was called back publicly in December 1986 by the Prime Minister. The Deputy Prime Minister had turned to a meeting of a regional VVD department against plans for a visit by Queen Beatrix to Emperor Hirohito of Japan, while no decision had yet been taken in the Council of Ministers. “This falls into the category: once but not again,” Lubbers told De Korte before the House of Representatives.
After his ministry, De Korte was in the Lower House for six more years and in 1995 he left politics to work as vice president of the European Investment Bank.
De Korte was distinguished in 1989 as Commander of the Order of Orange-Nassau.
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