Rob Jetten has become the youngest and first openly gay Prime Minister of the Netherlands. The 38-year-old heads a three-party coalition government and takes office after a steady rise through Dutch politics over the past decade. Notably, the Netherlands was the first country to legalise same-sex marriage, in 2001.
Jetten's rise to the country's top post comes nearly a decade after he first won a seat in parliament in 2017 for the centrist, pro-European D66 party, which he now leads.
Who Is Rob Jetten?
Born on 25 March 1987 in the village of Veghel, Jetten grew up in Uden, located in the province of North Brabant. He completed both his bachelor's and master's degrees in Public Administration at Radboud University. Before entering politics, Jetten worked with ProRail, the Netherlands' state-owned railway infrastructure company, where he handled management and regional supply responsibilities.
According to a report by The Sunday Guardian, Jetten began his political career as a policy adviser to Democrats 66 (D66) in the Dutch Senate. He later became chair of the Young Democrats, the youth wing of D66.
He served as a municipal councillor in Nijmegen from 2010 to 2017 before being elected to the House of Representatives in 2017. At the age of 31, he became the parliamentary leader of D66, marking one of the fastest leadership rises within the party.
He became a spokesman for his party on climate issues, he also got a nickname "climate pusher". As a Cabinet minister under the then Prime Minister, and now NATO chief, Mark Rutte, Jetten championed a comprehensive package of climate legislation encompassing 120 measures costing a total of €28 billion, aiming to slash Dutch carbon emissions by 60% by 2030 compared with 1990 levels.
