CDA chairman Hans Huibers resigns amid performance criticism

CDA chairman Hans Huibers is stepping down, a spokesperson for the party board confirmed after reports in AD. Huiber has been criticized for some time now.

Various media reported on the dissatisfaction with Huibers’ absence and the slow process surrounding the appointment of a new party leader. On Monday, the party will announce who will lead it in the upcoming parliamentary election, much later than other parties. CDA members hold Huibers responsible for this, according to the AD.

Huibers said about recent reports in a statement: “The reports contain anonymous quotes with half and whole untruths. Those who know me better know that it is not correct. I cannot and do not want to work in such an environment.” Huibers also doesn’t want to burden the presentation of a new party leader “with a discussion about my person and position.”

The departing chairman wants CDA members to “stand more behind each other, next to each other, and for each other, and not get stuck in the past about things that sometimes happened years ago.” He hopes that the entire party will support the new party leader.

The current vice-chairman and secretary of the board, Mark Buck, will take over Huibers’ duties, the board reported.

Parliamentary faction chairman of the CDA Pieter Heerma wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that he has “great respect” for Huibers’ decision. “With unprecedented enthusiasm and passion, you went to town and countryside in recent years to visit all CDA departments and to bring energy there,” Heerma said about Huibers. “Best wishes!”

Huibers has been chairman of the party since 2021. His goal was to get the CDA back to calmer waters after his predecessor Rutger Pluim left due to disappointing results in the parliamentary elections.

But the internal commotion didn’t stop. There was much dissatisfaction within the party about the lack of visibility of the party leader and Foreign Affairs Minister Wopke Hoekstra. Discontent ran so high that at least the Limburg department of the party threatened to split off. Hoekstra has announced that he would not lead the party in the elections, and after the elections, he will almost certainly leave politics.