In the four-party coalition government formed under the Prime Minister Mark Rutte in the Netherlands, gender equality has been achieved. For the first time in Dutch political history, half of the 20 senior Cabinet ministers are women. Fourteen of the 29 ministers and secretaries of state will also be led by women politicians.
In the four-party coalition government formed under the Prime Minister Mark Rutte in the Netherlands, gender equality has been achieved. For the first time in Dutch political history, half of the 20 senior Cabinet ministers are women. Fourteen of the 29 ministers and secretaries of state will also be led by women politicians.
Among the women ministers, two politicians of Turkish origin stand out: Dilan Yeşilgöz Zegerius and Günay Uslu.
Dilan Yeşilgöz Zegerius, a liberal right-wing VVD MP led by Mark Rutte, is the new Minister of Security and Justice of the Netherlands; Günay Uslu, who is a deputy of the left-liberal Democrats 66 Party (D66), will be the Minister of State for Media and Culture.
Thus, for the first time in the Dutch government, two politicians of Turkish origin will be serving as ministers in the same period.
About Dilan Yeşilgöz and Günay Uslu
Dilan Yeşilgöz, born on June 18, 1977 in Ankara, is the daughter of a unionist father, born in Dersim, and a politician with a refugee past.
His father, Yücel Yeşilgöz, worked under the umbrella of the Revolutionary Workers’ Unions Confederation (DİSK) before the military coup of September 12, 1980. Yücel Yeşilgöz fled Turkey in 1980 after the coup and sought asylum in the Netherlands.
Dilan Yeşilgöz moved to the Netherlands in 1984 with her mother and sister.
Yeşilgöz, who studied socio-cultural sciences at the University of Amsterdam, was a member of the Amsterdam City Council between 2014-2017. She entered the Dutch House of Representatives from the VVD list in the 2017 elections.
She was re-elected in the elections last March and on 25 May 2021 was appointed as Minister of State for economic affairs and climate in the interim government.
Günay Uslu is the child of a family from the Emirdağ district of Afyon. Uslu, who holds a PhD in cultural history at the University of Amsterdam, is an expert on European cultural history, heritage and museums.
Uslu, who is the Chairman of the Audit Committee of the Amsterdam Eye Film Museum, is also a member of the advisory board of the Mauritshuis Museum in The Hague and the Rembrandt Association.
Günay Uslu, the brother of Atilay Uslu, the founder of the tourism company Corendon, was also working as the development director in her family’s company.