Dutch King officially swears in new Prime Minister Rob Jetten and his Cabinet
King Willem-Alexander swore in all members of the new Cabinet at Huis ten Bosch palace in The Hague. Including Prime Minister Rob Jetten, the Cabinet comprises 18 Ministers and 10 State Secretaries.
Twelve of the Cabinet members took the religious oath, swearing “So help me God Almighty,” and the same number made the non-religious promise, saying, “I declare and promise,” ANP reported.
Four Ministers did not have to be sworn in again because they were already Ministers in the previous Schoof I Cabinet. State Secretaries are always required to take the oath again, even if they previously held the same position.
No member of the Jetten I Cabinet took the oath in Frisian, the Netherlands’ second official language. They all spoke Dutch. In the previous Cabinet, there were two Frisians - Femke Wiersma (BBB) and Folkerd Idsinga (NSC).
During the ceremony, Rob Jetten also took over the Prime Minister’s X account, @minpres, from his predecessor, Dick Schoof. Shortly before that happened, all of Schoof’s posts were removed from the account, NOS reported. The same applies to the accounts of the Ministers.
D66 provided 10 ministers to the Cabinet, the VVD 9, and the CDA 8. State Secretary Sandra Palmen, who is responsible for resolving the childcare benefits scandal under the Ministry of Finance, continues in this Cabinet as a non-partisan member.
Now that the swearing-in ceremony is done, the new Ministers and State Secretaries will travel to their Ministries for the official handover of tasks. Later this afternoon, the new Cabinet will hold its first Council of Ministers, and tonight, they’ll be presented to the press.
Protest
A few dozen climate activists from Extinction Rebellion protested outside Huis ten Bosch Palace during the swearing-in ceremony on Monday. They sat down on the ground near the closed palace gates, displaying banners reading “Jetten, do what you promised.”
The protesters accused Jetten of “committing voter fraud” because his Cabinet is doing too little for the climate and is continuing the previous Cabinet’s migration policy.
