Hugo Mattheüs de Jonge (; born 26 September 1977) is a Dutch politician serving as Minister of Housing and Spatial Planning since 2022 in the

Fourth Rutte cabinet The Fourth Rutte cabinet is the current Government of the Netherlands. It was inaugurated on 10 January 2022. The cabinet is a continuation of the previous third Rutte cabinet and is formed by the conservative-liberal People's Party for Freedo ...

. A member of the

Christian Democratic Appeal The Christian Democratic Appeal ( nl, Christen-Democratisch Appèl, ; CDA) is a Christian-democratic political party in the Netherlands. It was originally formed in 1977 from a confederation of the Catholic People's Party, the Anti-Revolutionary ...

(CDA), he was elected to its

leadership Leadership, both as a research area and as a practical skill, encompasses the ability of an individual, group or organization to "lead", influence or guide other individuals, teams, or entire organizations. The word "leadership" often gets view ...

in 2020 for the

2021 Dutch general election General elections were held in the Netherlands from 15 to 17 March 2021 to elect all 150 members of the House of Representatives. Following the elections and lengthy coalition formation talks, the sitting government remained in power. The elect ...

. He withdrew later that year, citing an impossibility to combine his position as Health Minister in charge of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

efforts with his party leadership.

Early life and career

De Jonge studied at the Ichthus Hogeschool in

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...

to become a teacher in primary education and then continued in

Zwolle Zwolle () is a city and municipality in the Northeastern Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of Overijssel and the province's second-largest municipality after Enschede with a population of 130,592 as of 1 December 2021. Zwolle is o ...

a study for school management, which he completed with a diploma "school leader primary education". De Jonge worked in education for five years, first as a schoolteacher and eventually as deputy director of a primary school. De Jonge moved to national policy by working as a policy assistant for the CDA group in the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

in 2004. Between 2006 and 2010 he worked at the

Ministry of Education, Culture and Science The Ministry of Education, Culture and Science ( nl, Ministerie van Onderwijs, Cultuur en Wetenschappen; OCW) is the Dutch Ministry responsible for education, culture, science, research, gender equality and communications. The Ministry was cre ...

as political assistant of the CDA Minister

Maria van der Hoeven Maria Josephina Arnoldina van der Hoeven (born 13 September 1949) is a retired Dutch politician of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) party and nonprofit director. Van der Hoeven attended a Lyceum in Maastricht from April 1966 until May 1969 ...

and State Secretary

Marja van Bijsterveldt Janneke Marlene "Marja" van Bijsterveldt-Vliegenthart (born 27 June 1961) is a Dutch politician of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA). She has been mayor of Delft since 2 September 2016. Early life Van Bijsterveldt attended nursing scho ...

and as a policy assistant with a focus on quality improvement of the secondary education.

Political career

Alderman

In 2010, De Jonge was appointed as

alderman An alderman is a member of a Municipal government, municipal assembly or council in many Jurisdiction, jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council membe ...

with the portfolio of Education, Youth and Family in

. As such, he argued in 2013 on national television for the closing of the Islamic school association Ibn Ghaldoun after a number of problems came to light. After the municipal elections of 2014, De Jonge was appointed again as alderman, with the Healthcare portfolio. The same year he was announced as the Politician of the Year in Rotterdam. In October 2016, he announced a programme to persuade parents that are considered vulnerable to consider voluntary birth control. As he left the Rotterdam politics in October 2017, he was awarded the municipal ''Wolfert van Borselenpenning''.

Minister

In October 2017, De Jonge was appointed as

Deputy Prime Minister A deputy prime minister or vice prime minister is, in some countries, a government minister who can take the position of acting prime minister when the prime minister is temporarily absent. The position is often likened to that of a vice president, ...

and Minister of Health, Welfare and Sport in the

Third Rutte cabinet The third Rutte cabinet was the cabinet of the Netherlands from 26 October 2017 until 10 January 2022 (since 15 January 2021 demissionary). It was formed by a coalition government of the political parties People's Party for Freedom and Democracy ...

. During the administration of the oath and installation of the new Ministers, De Jonge received media attention because of his unusual choice of shoes, receiving both criticism and praise. After the resignation of

Bruno Bruins Bruno Johannes Bruins (born 10 July 1963) is a Dutch politician of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) who served as Minister for Medical Care in the Third Rutte cabinet from 26 October 2017 to 19 March 2020, when he resigned. He ...

as Minister for Medical Care on 19 March 2020, De Jonge became responsible for the government's response to the

. In this capacity, he initiated the development of a

COVID-19 app COVID-19 apps include mobile-software applications for digital contact-tracing - i.e. the process of identifying persons ("contacts") who may have been in contact with an infected individual - deployed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Numerous ...

. On 18 June 2020, De Jonge announced his candidacy for the leadership of the Christian Democratic Appeal, which had been vacant since the resignation of

Sybrand van Haersma Buma Sybrand van Haersma Buma (; born 30 July 1965) is a Dutch politician serving as Mayor of Leeuwarden since 2019. Until 2019, he was a member of the House of Representatives from 2002 who also served as the parliamentary leader of the Christian D ...

in May 2019. In the vote, he won against

Pieter Omtzigt Pieter Herman Omtzigt (born 8 January 1974) is an independent Dutch politician who has been a member of the House of Representatives since 2003 apart from a short interruption from 17 June to 26 October 2010. In his political work, Omtzigt focus ...

Political positions

In his candidacy for the CDA leadership, De Jonge expressed his commitment to the political centre, seeing the CDA as a "broad people's party". He is seen as economically less on the right wing of his party than previous leaders, having previously called for the market and competition in healthcare to be restrained. He has also expressed the belief that his party should not cooperate with the right-wing populist parties

Party for Freedom The Party for Freedom ( nl, Partij voor de Vrijheid, PVV) is a nationalist, right-wing populist political party in the Netherlands. Founded in 2006 as the successor to Geert Wilders' one-man faction in the House of Representatives, it won nine ...

and

Forum for Democracy Forum for Democracy ( nl, Forum voor Democratie, FvD) is a right-wing populist Eurosceptic political party in the Netherlands that was founded as a think tank by Thierry Baudet and Henk Otten in 2016. The party first participated in elections i ...

References

External links

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CDA biography
(in Dutch) {{DEFAULTSORT:Jonge, Hugo de 1977 births Living people Aldermen of Rotterdam Christian Democratic Appeal politicians Dutch political consultants Dutch political writers Leaders of the Christian Democratic Appeal Ministers of Health of the Netherlands Municipal councillors of Rotterdam People from Schouwen-Duiveland Protestant Church Christians from the Netherlands 20th-century Dutch civil servants 20th-century Dutch educators 21st-century Dutch civil servants 21st-century Dutch educators 21st-century Dutch male writers 21st-century Dutch politicians