Future minister Kuipers takes his experience as a bed manager with him: ‘Joint search for a long-term plan’ | Inland

It is already raining the moment Kuipers is inside Rutte’s house for his acquaintance, but when he walks out to speak to the press, it really comes down from heaven. It is thanks to a D66 spokesperson that Kuipers stays dry: at the expense of a wet suit for himself, the spokesman holds a D66 umbrella over the head of the new minister. It is immediately clear on behalf of which party Kuipers, who also spoke with the PvdA about a place on the electoral list, will enter the cabinet.

It will also rain corona infections on Wednesday. RIVM reports almost 25,000 positive tests, a daily record. “I just heard it inside,” says Kuipers. “We knew that the numbers would go up again, with the omicron variant. But this is a very high number.” To then briefly review the situation from his role as bed planner: “The number of patients reporting to hospitals is relatively low.”

The corona face of the cabinet

Kuipers will be the corona face of the cabinet from next week, as the successor to De Jonge. Next Friday, he can immediately tell the country what will happen with the lockdown until January 14. He does not yet know how he intends to tackle the crisis. “I will undoubtedly come back to that, let me not prejudge it now. I am not sworn in yet.” He clearly takes his experiences as a hospital manager with him. As minister, he wants to ‘dedicate to maintaining accessibility and quality of care’. “That was already under pressure before Covid and has only come under more pressure in the past two years.”

His background as a specialist will help him ‘to interpret the image and the future very well’, says Kuipers. He doubts whether scaling up hospital and IC capacity will help. “In the situation of a pandemic, any capacity you create is no longer enough at some point. We must jointly look for a long-term plan.”

Jetten and Ollongren

Rutte also spoke on Wednesday with D66 members Rob Jetten (Minister for Climate and Energy) and Kajsa Ollongren (Minister of Defense). Jetten confessed that he had not counted on joining the cabinet, but leading his party’s faction in the House of Representatives. Only at the last moment was he, according to his own words, asked for his post by party leader Sigrid Kaag. Jetten, who in the past was portrayed as a ‘climate pusher’ by VVD member Klaas Dijkhoff and who subsequently embraced it as a nickname, decided to say yes specifically to this position: “Very honest: I think I would have said no to another ministerial position. ”

Ollongren said she “hadn’t hesitated for a moment” when Kaag asked her to become defense minister. She does not have a military background, but the D66 member says she has ‘a lot’ with that department. She points out that as Minister of the Interior she was responsible for the AIVD. “Of course that concerns geopolitical developments, which is a very important part of the Defense organization. And in a very distant past I studied international relations. So this is where my heart is.”

‘Great job for agriculture and fisheries’

Brand new agriculture minister Henk Staghouwer (CU) says he is ‘nice to work’ for agriculture and fisheries. He wants to talk to farmers and fishermen quickly. “We just need a long-term perspective. That they have certainty where they are going, what they can invest in.” He is counting on ‘good cooperation’ with fellow minister Christianne van der Wal, who will be responsible for the difficult nitrogen dossier at the department.

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