Hoekstra acknowledged that talks had already been held on Thursday. But according to him, it is now first the turn of the party board, which will meet on Friday. “Then I will consider it.” According to Hoekstra, De Jonge’s decision came as a surprise to him on Thursday.
Hoekstra said earlier that he feels more like a director than a politician and therefore decided not to take the lead. De Jonge and the popular Member of Parliament Pieter Omtzigt applied for this. Now that De Jonge has left, Omtzigt is formally eligible to lead the CDA list in the upcoming elections. He is the number 2 and received almost half the votes of the members in the internal top candidate election.
It is still unclear whether Omtzigt wants to leave the stage to Hoekstra. Omtzigt was a fan of Hoekstra in the past. It was only after Hoekstra decided not to take the lead in this spring that Omtzigt applied. Omtzigt also wanted Hoekstra as prime minister.
Omtzigt has not yet made itself heard. This weekend the CDA was to formalize the party leader during an online conference, but that has been postponed.
Disappears from the list
De Jonge said on Thursday that he cannot fully live up to his ministry and leadership of the CDA. He will stay on as Minister of Health, but will disappear completely from the list. “Responsibility for dealing with the corona crisis must come first,” he said. “The CDA deserves a party leader who can devote all the time and energy to the party, that is now not given to me.”
“The decision is tough, I love the party and believe in the strength of the CDA,” said De Jonge during a brief press moment. “But doing both well is impossible. There is always swell when the party leader changes. You can do that if you have time. And I just don’t have that. ”
The decision is not completely unexpected. A delegation from the CDA’s executive committee visited the lead candidate earlier Thursday. De Jonge has then drawn his conclusions, insiders say. However, the Deputy Prime Minister himself says that he already took the plunge at the breakfast table on Thursday morning, surrounded by his family.
In his own words, he had been around with the idea for some time. De Jonge: “In recent weeks, months, the realization has grown that these roles are difficult to combine. The game also deserves my time and attention, and I can only give it once. The heaviest should weigh the heaviest. That is the approach to the corona crisis. ”
Now that De Jonge is stepping aside, the party hopes to break through the hopeless situation for the CDA in the run-up to the parliamentary elections in March next year. The conversion of the bill comes at a crucial moment: this weekend the candidate list would be determined via an online conference. However, the congress is being postponed, party chairman Rutger Ploum just announced. Monday the board will come with a new date.
De Jonge does not comment on who should succeed him as party leader. “The party faces a new choice, I really leave that to the party.”
Criticism
The pressure on De Jonge has been increased considerably recently. Members expressed concern about the enormous criticism that the party leader as corona minister had to endure, which has not benefited his popularity. In the polls, the CDA is unchanged at a loss.
In the run-up to Friday and Saturday’s congress, however, the whole process accelerated, insiders say. The catalyst is the persistent dissatisfaction with the top candidate elections in July. De Jonge only just managed to beat challenger Pieter Omtzigt and since then has never managed to get the entire match behind him. This was partly because doubts persisted at the top of the party as to whether the elections were fair.
IT agency CGI’s conclusion that there were “no major irregularities” at the time is inconsistent with the many shortcomings listed in that same CGI report, critical party members say. The fact that the party management nevertheless sticks to this conclusion and has left questions unanswered so far has caused persistent great frustration in the party.
