New Minister of Agriculture to be announced on Monday

ChristenUnie will announce on Monday who the new minister of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality will be, according to sources from The Hague. This means that there will be a new minister before Johan Remkes announces the findings of his talks with the agricultural sector and others on Wednesday.

ChristenUnie was forced to look for a new minister after the sudden departure of Henk Staghouwer nearly a month ago. Party leader Gert-Jan Segers immediately said that the minister would be found within the same party.

Until a new minister is appointed, the position is held by Carola Schouten. The ChristenUnie politician is also Minister for Poverty Policy, Participation and Pensions and Deputy Prime Minister. It is not yet clear who the new minister will be. A number of names are circulating in the media, including that of MP Pieter Grinwis, but there is no clear favorite yet.

ChristenUnie will meet in Ede on Saturday for a special congress. The meeting of members was organized to discuss the asylum policy of the Cabinet, supported by a coalition of which ChristenUnie is a part. Within the party, there is mainly criticism of the partial suspension of family reunification in order to slow down the influx into the asylum chain.