Cornelia Johanna "Carola" Schouten (born 6 October 1977) is a Dutch politician serving as third
Deputy Prime Minister of the Netherlands and Minister for Poverty Policy, Participation and Pensions in the IV Rutte Cabinet since 10 January 2022. She has served as
Minister of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality in the
Third Rutte cabinet from 2017-2022. She is a member of the
Christian Union (CU).
Early life and education
A native of
's-Hertogenbosch
s-Hertogenbosch (), colloquially known as Den Bosch (), is a city and municipality in the Netherlands with a population of 157,486. It is the capital of the province of North Brabant and its fourth largest by population. The city is south of th ...
, Schouten grew up in
Waardhuizen, managing her deceased father's dairy farm with her mother and her two sisters for four years, after which time the family ended the farming activities and moved to neighbouring village of
Giessen (Waardhuizen and Giessen are nowadays located in the new municipality of
Altena).
She attended Altena College in
Sleeuwijk and studied business administration at
Erasmus University Rotterdam with a year abroad at
Tel Aviv University. Schouten worked at the
Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment from 2000 to 2006. Subsequently, she was an assistant to the Christian Union parliamentary group, entering into politics.
Political career
Schouten became a member of the House of Representatives in 2011 upon the resignation of former Deputy Prime Minister
André Rouvoet
André Rouvoet (; born 4 January 1962) is a retired Dutch politician of the Reformatory Political Federation (RPF) party and later the Christian Union (CU) party and jurist. He is the chairman of the executive board of the Healthcare Insurance ...
. In parliament, she served as her group’s spokesperson on financial policy.
Schouten and party leader
Gert-Jan Segers participated in the negotiations of forming the
third government led by Prime Minister Mark Rutte, which she entered as