Opposition is growing to home affairs minister Piet Hein Donner’s candidature for the post of vice president of the Council of State.

The minister has been put forward by his Christian Democrat party as the frontrunner to take over from Herman Tjeenk Willink.
In an interview on Sunday, Labour party leader Job Cohen said he will introduce a motion against Donner’s appointment to the post.
The Council of State advises the government and parliament on legislation and governance and Cohen thinks appointing a sitting minister will create a conflict of interests.
The green party GroenLinks and the Socialist party agree with Cohen. They are worried about a minister moving to the Council of State and advising on matters he is responsible for.
‘As a minister, Donner has aligned himself with government policy and everything in the pipeline for the coming years,’ GroenLinks party leader Jolande Sap told the press.
She wants a less political vice president and thinks there are better candidates than Donner.
Transparency
The left-wing liberal D66 party has not yet entered the discussion, but party leader Alexander Pechtold says he wants prime minister Mark Rutte to remove the ‘veil of shadow and mist’ that hangs over the procedure for choosing a candidate and make it more transparent.
The right-wing liberal VVD, the Christian Democrats’ fellow governing party, see no reason why Donner should not be appointed.
The appointment of a sitting minister is not unprecedented. Tjeenk Willink’s predecessor, Willem Scholten, was appointed in 1980 when he was defence minister, much to the displeasure of the Labour party. He remained vice president until 1997.