The moment arrives

After six weeks and 36 witness hearings in which his name surfaced repeatedly, Hugo de Jonge (CDA) will appear Friday afternoon before the parliamentary inquiry committee examining the Netherlands' Covid-19 pandemic response. The session is the final hearing before the committee breaks for summer recess; proceedings will resume on 24 August, when De Jonge is scheduled to appear a second time. De Jonge, now King's Commissioner in Zeeland, served as health minister from 2020 to 2022 and became the public face of Dutch coronavirus policy after his predecessor Bruno Bruins (VVD) collapsed during a debate in March 2020 and stepped down.

'Into the storm'

De Jonge took on the coronavirus portfolio at the outbreak of the pandemic and, together with prime minister Mark Rutte (VVD), led the national response through dozens of Tuesday press conferences and parliamentary debates. A 2020 NRC interview captured his posture: "There is only one way to make no mistakes and that is to stand on the sidelines with your hands in your pockets. I stood fully in the storm." Within cabinet, De Jonge pushed to prevent healthcare overloading, sometimes frustrating ministers focused on the economy. The committee cited an SMS from Rutte to De Jonge from late 2020: "I have enjoyed our cooperation. [...] Together with Ferd [Grapperhaus, justice minister, CDA] against the rest." Former minister Mona Keijzer confirmed that characterisation during her Wednesday hearing.

The 'man on the moon' strategy

De Jonge's department had to centrally coordinate testing, face masks, municipal health services (GGDs), and national hospital-patient distribution within a fully decentralised healthcare landscape. He told NRC: "On all fronts the possibility to exercise central control is lacking." The ministry had to "improvise" throughout the pandemic, he said. The Dutch Safety Board later described De Jonge's approach as a "man on the moon strategy": to mobilise organisations over which he had little formal control, De Jonge regularly made large public promises that were not always fulfilled. The Safety Board concluded this amounted to "overpromise and underdeliver." Internal emails shown to the committee captured the dynamic: officials described the department as overwhelmed by parliamentary briefs "and Hugo's daily ideas." One senior official wrote to a colleague: "Actually Hugo wants to do everything himself."

Vaccination policy and 'dancing with Janssen'

De Jonge's forceful vaccination advocacy drew escalating criticism as the crisis wore on. He framed the outbreak as a "pandemic of the unvaccinated" and equated vaccination to wearing a seatbelt: "That you can still get a serious accident while wearing a seatbelt is no reason not to put one on." His push to link vaccination status to the coronavirus entry pass system (the QR-code based 3G system of vaccinated, recovered, or tested) generated particular friction. In late 2021 the government considered moving to a 2G system that would exclude a negative test, a step critics said amounted to a de facto vaccination mandate. One of the most painful episodes for De Jonge was the "dansen met Janssen" (dancing with Janssen) campaign, which encouraged young people to go out after a single Johnson & Johnson shot, even though the vaccine required weeks to provide full protection. De Jonge later acknowledged this was an error of judgment.

Unresolved questions

The committee will press De Jonge on the so-called Catshuis sessions, small-circle meetings at the prime minister's official residence where key Covid measures were prepared and where, Rutte testified, "extreme ideas" were discussed. No minutes were taken of those gatherings. The face-mask procurement deal with entrepreneur Sywert van Lienden also lingers; De Jonge previously apologised in writing for failing to inform parliament about his contacts with the now-controversial figure. Friday morning's session will first hear from Robèr Willemsen, former chair of Royal Hospitality Netherlands (KHN), who was a vocal critic of De Jonge's policies and the restrictions imposed on the hospitality sector.

“There is only one way to make no mistakes and that is to stand on the sidelines with your hands in your pockets. I stood fully in the storm.”

What lies ahead

De Jonge has said he looks forward to the hearing but recently acknowledged he also dreads it, not least because threats and intimidation against those involved have increased as the inquiry has dominated the news. The committee's work resumes on 24 August, when De Jonge will return for a second round of testimony.