Who is Rob Jetten?
Rob Jetten was born in 1987 in Veghel, North Brabant, studied public administration in Nijmegen and worked at the rail agency ProRail. He led the D66 youth wing, joined the House of Representatives in 2017 and was Minister for Climate and Energy in Mark Rutte's fourth cabinet. He became D66 leader in 2023, when the party fell to nine seats. In the October 2025 election D66 rose to 26 seats, tying with the PVV. After a four-month formation, he was sworn in on 23 February 2026 as the youngest prime minister, leading a three-party minority government that holds 66 of 150 seats.
Previously: Prime Minister of the Netherlands (since February 2026) · Leader of D66 (since August 2023) · Minister for Climate and Energy (2022-2024) · Member of the House of Representatives (since 2017)
Documented positions
- His cabinet aims to build about ten new cities and one million homes by 2030, and he campaigned on 100,000 homes a year.Source: cidob.org
- The cabinet raises the retirement age from 67 to 70 through an automatic link to life expectancy, and cuts social spending, including higher healthcare co-payments and reduced unemployment benefits.Source: cidob.org
- On migration he would require refugees to learn the language, allow asylum claims from outside the EU and deport 'rotten apples', and his government keeps the tougher laws of the previous cabinet.Source: euronews.com
- His finance minister is tasked with keeping the deficit within 2 percent of GDP, and defence is to move toward NATO's 3.5 percent target with a 19 billion euro budget.Source: dutchnews.nl
- In March 2026 he said the EU needs less decision-making by unanimity, citing Hungary's veto of the 90 billion euro Ukraine loan.Source: euronews.com
- He said it is too early to set a date for Ukraine's EU accession, and the coalition programme calls for simplifying Article 7.Source: euronews.com
- He favours giving the EU more power and resources and supports implementing the EU Migration and Asylum Pact.Source: cidob.org
Record
His cabinet took office in February 2026 without a parliamentary majority and must find support law by law, with the PVV, GroenLinks-PvdA and others in opposition. Its early record is mainly agenda setting: the cabinet inherited the migration laws of the Schoof government, committed to NATO's higher spending target and began work on a housing drive and healthcare savings. The programme also leans on cuts that opponents have criticised, such as higher own-risk payments in health insurance.
Supporters credit him with an optimistic, centrist style that brought D66 back from nine seats to 26. Critics on the left object to the benefit and healthcare cuts, and critics on the right say the migration measures do not go far enough.