Carola Schouten takes over as Rotterdam’s new mayor

Carola Schouten was installed as the new mayor of Rotterdam on Thursday in a packed council chamber of the Rotterdam city hall. She will replace Ahmed Aboutaleb, who was the mayor from January 2009 up to the beginning of this month.

Schouten took the oath before the city council to Wouter Kolff, the King's Commissioner in Zuid-Holland, who also gave a speech. Deputy council chair Astrid Kockelkoren (GroenLinks) hung the chain of office around her after the speech.

The new mayor was welcomed on behalf of the municipal council by Partij voor de Dieren council member Ruud van der Velden, who chaired the confidential committee for the new mayor.

Jan van Zanen, the mayor of The Hague, and deputy mayor Robert Simons (Leefbaar Rotterdam) also gave a speech. Femke Halsema, mayor of Amsterdam, was also present at the installation, as was the former mayor of Rotterdam, Ivo Opstelten, who was Aboutaleb's predecessor. The latter was not present due to a stay abroad.

The council nominated Cornelia Johanna Schouten as Ahmed Aboutaleb's successor at the beginning of July. According to the trust committee, there were several suitable candidates among the 26 applicants, but there was broad support for Schouten's candidacy. The announcement of Schouten as a candidate was greeted with cheers and applause in the council chamber at the time.

Until the Schoof Cabinet took office, 47-year-old Schouten (member of the ChristenUnie and the Nederlands Gereformeerde Kerk) was Minister for Poverty Policy, Participation and Pensions in the Rutte IV Cabinet.

In the Cabinet before that, Rutte III, she was Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries, Food Security and Nature between 2017 and 2022. She was also Deputy Prime Minister in both Cabinets. Before that, she had been a member of the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of the Dutch parliament for the ChristenUnie since 2011.

Schouten, born and raised in Brabant, has lived in Rotterdam since the mid-nineties. She studied business administration at Erasmus University.