Van Nieuwenhuizen resigns as Minister of Infrastructure & Water Management

Cora van Nieuwenhuizen resigned as Minister of Infrastructure and Water Management on Tuesday, in connection with her accepting another position. Barbara Visser, the State Secretary of Defense, will take over as Minister of Infrastructure. And Minister Ank Bijleveld of Defense will add the State Secretary duties to her portfolio.

Van Nieuwenhuizen, 58, was a VVD parliamentarian for four years, then a Member of the European Parliament for three years, before becoming the Minister of Infrastructure and Water Management in October 2017 as part of the current Rutte III cabinet.

The Rutte III cabinet is currently running the country in a "caretaker" capacity, after the cabinet resigned in the wake of the childcare allowance scandal in January and while waiting for a new cabinet to be formed.

The cabinet formation process has been dragging on for 24 weeks since the parliamentary election on March 17. Only this month have more serious conversations been taking place between three of the current coalition parties VVD, D66 and CDA, and the two largest left-wing opposition parties, PvdA and GroenLinks. ChristenUnie was also involved in the Cabinet formation talks this week.

Hopes for formation talks progress were dashed on Tuesday, when the VVD and CDA again said that they won't work with both GroenLinks and PvdA.