Coalition party ChristenUnie gets new leader after surprise resignation

ChristenUnie members officially elected Mirjam Bikker as the new faction leader for the party. She succeeds Gert-Jan Segers as the political leader and chairman of the ChristenUnie in the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of the Dutch parliament, NOS reports.

Segers announced last week that he was stepping down as the leader of the smallest coalition party and as a parliamentarian to spend more time with his family.

After her election, Bikker said that her main goal as party leader was to bring hope. “I want to sit down with anyone of goodwill.” In an open letter published earlier on Tuesday, the 40-year-old MP said she wants to look more at the long term and denounced the “me-oriented choices” and boundless growth that comes with looking only at the short-term.

Bikker said that the Rutte IV coalition, of which her party is the smallest member, does not need to worry about stability now that she is leading the party.

Bikker is the ChristenUnie’s first female leader in the Tweede Kamer. She has been a parliamentarian since the 2021 elections. Before that, she was a senator in the Eerste Kamer, where she also acted as chairman for the ChirstenUnie.