Fmr. D66 Minister Hans Wijers to lead new coalition talks with Leeuwarden Mayor Buma

D66 wants to appoint Hans Wijers as one of the new informateurs to lead the Cabinet coalition talks, insiders have confirmed following reporting by NOS. Wijers previously served as Minister of Economic Affairs in the Kok I Cabinet, as chairman of ING, and as CEO of Akzo Nobel. Sybrand Buma, the former CDA leader and current mayor of Leeuwarden, will also act as an informateur alongside Wijers on behalf of the CDA.

On Thursday, the Tweede Kamer will debate the election results and the report from scout Wouter Koolmees, who recommends that CDA and D66 take three weeks to develop a “positive agenda” and hold in-depth discussions on five key issues. D66 won the elections for the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of Dutch parliament. CDA earned 18 seats, putting it behind D66 and the PVV.

In the Dutch political system, a verkenner (scout) is appointed after elections to explore possible coalitions and assess which parties could work together. Based on this assessment, an informateur is named to guide negotiations between the parties and help draft a coalition agreement.

The Montesquieu Institute describes Hans Wijers on Parlement.com as a “pragmatic and socially adept man, who occasionally broke with The Hague’s formalities as a minister.”

During his tenure in the 1990s, he oversaw the expansion of store opening hours and decided to close the nuclear power plants in Dodewaard and Borssele, though the decision on the latter was later reversed.In 1998, Wijers declined to become his party’s lead candidate and stepped away from politics.

Now 74 years old, Wijers spent his post-politics career in senior positions at key Dutch multinational companies, including a decade in charge of AkzoNobel, which partially overlapped with his decade as a non-executive director at Shell, and then he served as chair of the supervisory boards of Heineken and the Concertgebouw.

For six years, he was a member of ING’s supervisory board, and was nominated at the same time as CDA member and former Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende.

Sybrand Buma was the CDA’s parliamentary leader in the Tweede Kamer from 2010 until 2019. Soon after leaving national politics, he relocated to Leeuwarden to assume the mayoralty.