D66 asks Maastricht University President to act as informateur

After years of leading the resistance against plans to reduce the number of international students, Maastricht University President Rianne Letschert will now influence the next cabinet's policies from within. D66, the party that won the latest parliamentary elections in the Netherlands, has asked her to lead the negotiations to form a cabinet with the centrist party CDA and the right-wing party VVD. The House of Representatives will decide on this matter this afternoon.

Letschert (1976) became the rector of Maastricht University in 2016 and has served as that university's president since 2021. A professor of International Law & Victimology, she specialises in victims of large-scale human rights violations, such as in Rwanda, Congo and Liberia.

In recent years, she has become increasingly active in politics. Letschert was a frequent visitor to The Hague, especially when the Schoof cabinet announced substantial budget cuts for international students. Maastricht is the most international university in the Netherlands, with over 60 percent of its student body comprised of internationals. She fiercely opposed those budget cuts, as expected.

In 2018, she also helped negotiate a new administration for the municipality of Maastricht. The local CDA party had asked her to do so, the university newspaper Observant wrote at the time.

Political ambitions
Her inner circle has long known of her political ambitions. When Letschert was appointed for a second term as the university's president in September, Observant wondered whether she would complete it.

Letschert is afilliated with D66. She said in an interview with De Limburger this summer that she had already turned down a ministerial post once. She was reportedly asked to join the fourth Mark Rutte cabinet in 2022, but it did not suit her at the time. Now, she sees things differently.

If the House of Representatives agrees, she will probably lead the negotiations between D66, CDA and VVD this week. Maastricht University reports that her role as informateur will probably last until the end of January.