European commissioner Wopke Hoekstra is expected to stay on for a second term in Brussels after his name was put forward by the new cabinet, according to reports in Dutch media.
The former Christian Democrat (CDA) leader is seen as a pragmatic choice, despite his party leaving government after slumping to five seats in the general election last November.
As a former finance minister, Hoekstra is seen as a political heavyweight in Brussels, increasing the chances of the Netherlands securing an influential economic portfolio in the next commission.
The CDA is affiliated with the largest faction in the European parliament, the centre-right European Peopleβs Party (EPP) of Ursula von der Leyen, who was re-elected as commission president last week.
Of the four parties in Dick Schoofβs new Dutch government, only the right-wing liberal VVD had any suitable alternative candidates to Hoekstra.
MEP Malik Azmani and former foreign trade minister Liesje Schreinemacher were rumoured to have been considered, but Schoofβs team is understood to have put Hoekstraβs name forward, RTL Nieuws reported.
Hoekstra is known to be keen to stay on as the Netherlandsβ commissioner, but wants to move from the climate portfolio which he inherited from Frans Timmermans last October.
The decision to reappoint a former minister from an opposition party has raised some eyebrows, but is not unprecedented. Timmermans stayed on as climate commissioner in 2019 despite the Labour party (PvdA) losing three-quarters of its seats at the general election two years earlier.