Hugo de Jonge

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 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.

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 working for five years in education, he made a shift to national policy by working as policy assistant with the CDA-faction 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 policy assistant with a focus on quality improvement of the secondary education.

Hugo Mattheüs de Jonge (born 26 September 1977) is a Dutch politician serving as first Deputy Prime Minister of the Netherlands and Minister of Health, Welfare and Sport since 26 October 2017 in the Third Rutte cabinet. He is a member of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA).