Drawn face, side parting and three-day beard, Wopke Hoekstra looks like the top of the class. Unsurprisingly, his curriculum vitae displays a long political career in The Hague, which could very quickly extend to Brussels. The Dutch Foreign Minister will indeed be a candidate for the post of European Commissioner for Climate Action to replace Frans Timmermans, head of the legislative list in the Netherlands in the fall, announced Prime Minister Mark Rutte.
“Wopke Hoekstra has been proposed for the European Commission, to the post that became vacant because Frans Timmermans is coming to The Hague, at least because he is trying to get there, and we believe he has the required qualifications,” said Mark Rutte, Friday, during a press conference. A spokeswoman for the European Commission has confirmed on “X” (formerly Twitter) that the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, will audition Wopke Hoekstra on Tuesday August 29.
Christian Democrat Wopke Hoekstra, 47, began his professional life at oil giant Shell, then at consultancy firm McKinsey. The rest of his career will be political, and marked by a series of quarrels with countries in southern Europe: he will earn the nickname “Monsieur Non”. The current number 3 of the Dutch government was also one of the figureheads during the creation, in 2018, of the “New Hanseatic League”, a group of several countries in Northern Europe advocating budgetary orthodoxy in Europe. “Depending on who you ask, Wopke Hoekstra is either the brutal embodiment of Northern fiscal prudence or the ruthless face of European short-sightedness with his foot on the South’s neck,” the US site wrote. Politico in 2020. The former finance minister of Mark Rutte (2017-2022) did not leave only good memories.
Former “bête noire” of the countries of the South
As Finance Minister of the European Union’s fifth economic power, he stood out for his criticisms, which were deemed harsh and sometimes inappropriate, regarding the financial management of the countries of southern Europe, and for which he later claimed to have lacked “empathy”. In 2020, Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa castigated the position deemed “repugnant” and the “recurring pettiness” of Wopke Hoekstra, who had suggested investigating the lack of budgetary margin of certain European countries to face the coronavirus pandemic. Covid-19. At the time, he opposed the proposal by Spain and Italy for a partial pooling of public debts at European level. The same year, the daily El Pais described him as “the face of harshness”.
If accepted by the head of the European Commission, the candidate must then go before the European Parliament. A second stage which promises to be more stormy. Second political force of the Strasbourg hemicycle after the conservatives, the Socialists and Democrats (S & D) have promised “serious and difficult hearings” to the Dutch pretender. “In the context of recent cynical maneuvers by the EPP (European People’s Party) to water down the Green Deal and derail key legislative files such as the Nature Restoration Act, it is essential for our group that the climate portfolio remains in the hands of the S&D family,” they said Friday, August 25, in a statement.
“Wopke Hoekstra came to the attention of the general European public with controversial remarks during the Covid-19 crisis,” added the S&D, whose president, the Spaniard Iratxe García Pérez, has in 2020 – as the president Portuguese and Italian officials – openly attacked the Dutch politician, calling him “hurtful, ignorant and arrogant”, according to Politico.
In France, the Elysée was also confronted with Wopke Hoekstra. It was he who opposed in November 2018 the draft budget for the euro zone proposed by President Emmanuel Macron. In February 2019, it was again Wopke Hoekstra who ordered an increase in the capital of the Dutch state within Air France-KLM in order to equal the share of the French state. A little appreciated maneuver at Bercy.
Quoted in the Pandora Papers
Wopke Hoekstra also experienced some setbacks during his career. In 2021, he is cited in the Pandora Papers scandal, which reveals an investment of 26,500 euros through a company based in the British Virgin Islands. Under the fire of criticism, the Minister of Finance at the time denied having been informed.
On Friday August 25, Wopke Hoekstra told public broadcaster NOS that he was “honored” to have been nominated as a candidate by the Dutch government, but regretted stepping down from his national responsibilities as war raged in Ukraine. Wopke Hoekstra is known to be a strong supporter of kyiv and played an important role in the delivery of F-16 fighter jets, promised by The Hague to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.