Update: D66 confirmed the news on Friday afternoon.

“The ministerial post is a tough job, not an honorary one,” Letschert said last August in the newspaper De Limburger. But she did appear willing to take it on: “If everyone passes up the complicated jobs, we won’t move forward.”

Yesterday, RTL Nieuws reported that she is indeed making the move to political The Hague. She herself cannot “yet confirm it,” Letschert told Maastricht University newspaper Observant.

D66 asked her last December to serve as informateur. She is appreciated by incoming prime minister Rob Jetten and apparently also gets along well with the party leaders of the CDA and the VVD.

In the past, Letschert was a professor of international law and victimology in Tilburg. In 2016, she became Rector Magnificus of Maastricht University, and from 2021 onward she served as President of the Executive Board. Her political ambitions were no secret. In September, university newspaper Observant already speculated about it.

Her colleague at the ministry will be State Secretary Judith Tielen (VVD), the party itself reports. She is currently State Secretary for Youth, Prevention and Sport in the Schoof cabinet. Earlier in her career, Tielen was, among other roles, a marketing lecturer at HU University of Applied Sciences Utrecht. In 2017, she entered the House of Representatives on behalf of the liberals.

The ministers will still have to divide the portfolios among themselves, but it is likely that Letschert will take responsibility for (senior) secondary vocational education (MBO), higher education, and science.

Defense

VVD leader Dilan Yeşilgöz will become Minister of Defense. She too will deal with universities and universities of applied sciences, as a significant portion of the increased defense budget is set to go toward knowledge and innovation.

This article was translated using AI-assisted tools and reviewed by an editor.