Frans Weekers challenges VVD leadership for Senate lead role

Former Dutch state secretary Frans Weekers says he wants to lead the VVD’s list of candidates for the Senate, challenging the party leadership’s choice of former minister Micky Adriaansens.

Weekers announced his intention on the television programme *Pauw & De Wit & Moggré* on Sunday. He said he had the support of, among others, former foreign minister Halbe Zijlstra and former senior civil servant Johan Remkes, but still needed to be formally nominated.

If his candidacy goes ahead, VVD members will decide who leads the list. The result is expected on 16 December.

Weekers said he wanted to bring the party “back to the right course” and argued that no party should be excluded from cooperation. He said he wanted to change the VVD as a member of the Senate, rather than criticise it in the press or resign from the party.

He was a member of the House of Representatives from 2003 to 2010 and served as state secretary for finance for two years during the first and second Rutte cabinets.