Hugo de Jonge

Hugo Mattheüs de Jonge (born 26 September 1977) is a Dutch politician. A member of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA), he was elected to its leadership in 2020 for the 2021 Dutch general election. He withdrew later that year, citing an impossibility to combine his position as Health Minister in charge of the COVID-19 pandemic efforts with his party leadership. He later served in the fourth Rutte cabinet as Minister for Housing and Spatial Planning from 2022 until 2024 and as Minister of the Interior and Kingdom Relations from 2023 until 2024.

Early life and career
De Jonge studied at the Ichthus Hogeschool in Rotterdam to become a teacher in primary education and then continued in Zwolle a study for school management, which he completed with a diploma "school leader primary education".

De Jonge worked in education for five years, first as a schoolteacher and eventually as deputy director of a primary school.

De Jonge moved to national policy by working as a policy assistant for the CDA group in the House of Representatives in 2004. Between 2006 and 2010 he worked at the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science as political assistant of the CDA Minister Maria van der Hoeven and State Secretary Marja van Bijsterveldt and as a policy assistant with a focus on quality improvement of the secondary education.

Alderman
In 2010, De Jonge was appointed as alderman with the portfolio of Education, Youth and Family in Rotterdam. As such, he argued in 2013 on national television for the closing of the Islamic school association Ibn Ghaldoun after a number of problems came to light.

After the municipal elections of 2014, De Jonge was appointed again as alderman, with the Healthcare portfolio. The same year he was announced as the Politician of the Year in Rotterdam. In October 2016, he announced a programme to persuade parents that are considered vulnerable to consider voluntary birth control. As he left the Rotterdam politics in October 2017, he was awarded the municipal Wolfert van Borselenpenning.

Minister
In October 2017, De Jonge was appointed as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Health, Welfare and Sport in the Third Rutte cabinet. During the administration of the oath and installation of the new Ministers, De Jonge received media attention because of his unusual choice of shoes, receiving both criticism and praise.

After the resignation of Bruno Bruins as Minister for Medical Care on 19 March 2020, De Jonge became responsible for the government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In this capacity, he initiated the development of a COVID-19 app.

On 18 June 2020, De Jonge announced his candidacy for the leadership of the Christian Democratic Appeal, which had been vacant since the resignation of Sybrand van Haersma Buma in May 2019. In the vote, he won against Pieter Omtzigt. As Minister for Housing and Spatial Planning, De Jonge introduced the Good Landlordship Act to regulate rented housing, and it passed both houses of parliament in March 2023. He proposed an amendment the following year to extend rent control beyond public housing, and he filed a bill that would mandate a certain percentage of new housing to be affordable. It went into effect in July 2024. The fourth Rutte cabinet had been a caretaker government since July 2023. However, De Jonge continued to introduce new legislative proposals as no housing-related subjects had been exempted from consideration by the House of Representatives. His term as minister ended on 2 July 2024, when the Schoof cabinet was sworn in.

Political positions
In his candidacy for the CDA leadership, De Jonge expressed his commitment to the political centre, seeing the CDA as a "broad people's party". He is seen as less right wing on economic issues than his predecessors, having previously called for the market and competition in healthcare to be restrained. He has also expressed the belief that his party should not cooperate with the right-wing populist parties Party for Freedom and Forum for Democracy.

Personal life
De Jonge has a wife called Mirelle, and they have children.