Raymond Knops State Secretary of Kingdom Relations in Rutte III cabinet

GREAT BAY – The new Dutch government will not have a Minister for Kingdom Relations. Instead, the portfolio has been downgraded to the level of a State Secretary. The successor of Minister Ronald Plasterk (Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations) in the new cabinet is Karin Hildur (Kajsa) Ollongren but her portfolio covers Home Affairs and Housing. Her state secretary at the ministry of Home Affairs in charge of Kingdom Relations is Raymond Knops – and that is the man St. Maarten will have to deal with.

Knops turns 46 on November 10. He is a former soldier and currently a member of the Second Chamber for the CDA. Knops name circulated as the favorite for the Ministry of Defense, but in the end he got another post. After a three-year career in the military, he started his political career in the municipal council of Horst from 1998 to 2002. Knops is one of the veterans in the Rutte III cabinet. In 2006 he was elected to the Second Chamber.

Minister of Home Affairs and Housing Kajsa Ollongren has the Dutch and the Swedish nationality. Born in Leiden in 1967, Ollongren was the secretary-general at the department of general affairs from 2011 until 2014, where she served Prime Minister Mark Rutte. In 2014 she became an alderman in Amsterdam.

Ollongren will get issues playing in Statia, Saba and Bonaire on her plate.