Mona Keijzer

Maria Cornelia Gezina "Mona" Keijzer (born 9 October 1968) is a Dutch politician and former civil servant who is the minister of housing and spatial planning in the Schoof cabinet since 2024. A member of the Farmer–Citizen Movement (BoerBurgerBeweging, BBB), she won a seat in the House of Representatives in the 2023 Dutch general election.

Formerly a member of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA), she served in the third Rutte cabinet as State Secretary for Economic Affairs and Climate Policy alongside Dilan Yesilgöz-Zegerius from 26 October 2017 until 25 September 2021. Keijzer served in the House of Representatives between 2012 and 2017, and again for six months from 31 March 2021 until 27 September 2021. She focused on matters of nursing, home care and culture. Before becoming a full-time politician, she worked as an environmental jurist for the municipalities of Waterland and Almere, as well as for the province of Gelderland.

Early life
Keijzer was born in a Catholic family in Edam, and she has an older brother and a younger sister. She attended the Werenfridus secondary school in Hoorn at VWO level, and she studied juridical public administration and public law at the University of Amsterdam.

Christian Democratic Appeal
Keijzer started her political career as a member of the municipal council of Waterland from 1996 to 2002 and was later an alderwoman from 1998 to 2006. Subsequently, she worked as a lawyer and mediator in 2005 and 2006. Afterwards she was an alderwoman of neighbouring municipality of Purmerend from 2007 to 2012.

In 2012, Keijzer contested the CDA leadership election in an attempt to become the party's lijsttrekker for the 2012 general election. Although performing unexpectedly well in the elections, she let Sybrand van Haersma Buma go first. Placed second on the list of candidates, Keijzer was elected to the House of Representatives, receiving 127,446 votes, and she served as her party's spokesperson for curative care, asylum, and integration. She was reelected in the 2017 general election with 165,384 votes.

On 26 October 2017, Keijzer was appointed State Secretary for Economic Affairs and Climate Policy in the third Rutte cabinet. In this capacity, she was responsible for consumer policy, small and medium-sized enterprises, telecom, post and market regulation.

In a joint statement in October 2020, Keijzer and her French counterpart Cédric O called for a European Union authority to regulate large technology companies and argued that such an authority should be able to prevent digital platforms from blocking access to their services "unless they have an objective justification."

In 2020, she again contested the CDA leadership election, but came third, after Hugo de Jonge and Pieter Omtzigt. Placed seventh on the party's candidate list for the 2021 general election, Keijzer was reelected, obtaining 18,031 votes.

On 25 September 2021 Keijzer was dismissed from her cabinet position after publicly criticising the cabinet's position on COVID-19 measures. While forced resignations are not unheard of, being removed from a cabinet position has little precedent. The last time a cabinet member was fired was in 1975, although in that instance Jan Glastra van Loon was allowed to resign. Before Keijzer's discharge, no other cabinet member had actually been fired since World War II. Media outlets reported that Keijzer refused to resign. Keijzer also resigned from the House of Representatives two days later.

Farmer–Citizen Movement
On 1 September 2023, Keijzer joined Farmer–Citizen Movement and it was announced that she would be the party's candidate in position two, for the November 2023 election, and also the BBB candidate for the position of Prime Minister. She assisted her party in subsequent cabinet formation talks. In the House, Keijzer serves as the BBB's spokesperson for the interior, digital affairs, migration, social affairs, and media. She raised the possibility of declaring certain parts of Ukraine safe during Russia's invasion of the country such that refugees could return. She also suggested refugees would have to contribute more financially towards their sheltering to discourage an influx. Defending strict asylum rules, Keijzer called antisemitism "almost part of Islamic culture" in reference to the origin of many asylum seekers. Criminal complaints were subsequently filed against her for group defamation, but the Public Prosecution Service decided not to bring charges.

After the PVV, VVD, NSC, and BBB formed the Schoof cabinet, Keijzer was sworn in as Fourth Deputy Prime Minister and as Minister of Housing and Spatial Planning on 2 July 2024. The Ministry of Housing and Spatial Planning was simultaneously re-established after its responsibilities had been handled by different ministries since 2010. Keijzer succeeded Hugo de Jonge, who served as a minister without portfolio.

Personal life
Keijzer is married to a urologist and has five sons. She lives in Ilpendam and belongs to the Catholic Church. Her father-in-law is a former alderman of Waterland for the CDA.