Current Cabinet members Slob and Blokhuis will not join next Cabinet

ChristenUnie Cabinet members Arie Slob (Minister for Education) and Paul Blokhuis (State Secretary for Health) will not return in the next Cabinet, the party said. The next Cabinet of Prime Minister Mark Rutte is expected to be introduced to the public in January.

Party leader Gert-Jan Segers called it "a privilege" that he was able to work alongside both men. He called the departure of the senior politicians "a farewell to two political friends.”

Slob was party leader between 2011 and 2015 and, after a short break from politics, he became minister for Primary and Secondary Education and Media in 2017. His political career began in 1993 as a city council member in Zwolle.

The outgoing minister called it an honor to support his party on the issues of quality education, diverse media, extra care for students and educational freedom. He was criticized on the last point last year, when members of parliament said he did not speak out strongly enough against the anti-LGBTQ stances at reformed schools. The issue has resurfaced multiple times since 2020. Slob said he is taking "a step back in gratitude.”

Blokhuis became State Secretary for Health, Welfare and Sports in 2017, after having been an alderman in Apeldoorn since 2006. As state secretary, he championed the national prevention plan, which included measures to address smoking, obesity and alcohol abuse. Blokhuis said he would have liked to continue. "But at the same time it's not about me, but how we as a party can best serve the country,” he said.

It is unclear if Carola Schouten, another ChristenUnie minister, will continue in politics. She is now the caretaker Minister of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality and worked with party leader Segers during the formation negotiations.