VVD-prominent Schippers back in politics as Senate leader.
Edith Schippers became president of chemical group DSM Nederland in 2019 and, since the beginning of this year, also the chief executive of DSM Europe. She will be best known to the general public for her role as a politician for the VVD. As a member of parliament she was responsible for the public health portfolio and from 2010 to 2017 she was Minister of Health, Welfare and Sport.
One day after the elections, on Thursday 16 March 2017, Edith Schippers was nominated as a scout and from 28 March she held talks with various party leaders as an informant. The Mobility Alliance then sent a letter to informateur Schippers, urging them to reach a mobility agreement with the new cabinet within a year. The alliance called for an additional investment budget of at least €1 billion.
“I've been involved in health my entire working life, so it's no coincidence that I'm at the DSM.”
The Mobility Alliance wanted to make agreements with the new cabinet to solve bottlenecks and seize opportunities for road, water and rail. They then presented the cabinet with five building blocks, concrete proposals and measures to make mobility smarter, greener, more flexible and safer. Part of the five building blocks was a new 'Laws, regulations and taxation'. There was scope for experimenting with paying according to use and for tax-simulating bicycle purchase and use.
Schippers previously worked on the establishment of a coalition agreement with VVD, CDA, D66 and GroenLinks. That was the moment that VNO-NCW, the Mobility Alliance and many other organizations anticipated long ago. By mid-2016, the substantive preparations were already in full swing. VNO-NCW then published its memorandum on the Mainports. On 16 December 2016, the Mobility Alliance presented a sector-wide vision of the future of total mobility in the Netherlands.
Now the former minister Edith Schippers is returning to national politics. Many liberals see 58-year-old Schippers as the ideal candidate to succeed party leader Mark Rutte. Schippers himself indicates that he does not aspire to this, but that he does not close the door on this either. “I never rule out anything, but as I said: it is absolutely not my ambition”. In a video on social media, the VVD confirms that the party prominent has been nominated as the leader of the Senate elections.
Edith Schippers will first become the party leader and then in all probability the party leader in the Senate. With this position, she is immediately back in the center of power. In an explanation, Schippers says that she will not give up her job at DSM. “We work well with the government, but I think there is sometimes a bleak climate in politics. If you're not careful, everyone who works for a multinational is a snatch," said Schippers in 2021 during the Nieuwsuur program.
