Rob Jetten

Rob Arnoldus Adrianus Jetten (born 25 March 1987) is a Dutch politician serving as First Deputy Prime Minister of the Netherlands since January 2024 and Minister for Climate and Energy Policy in the fourth Rutte cabinet since January 2022.

He has served as Leader of the Democrats 66 (D66) since August 2023.

Jetten grew up in Uden, North Brabant and attended his secondary education at Udens College between 1999 and 2005.

He later studied at Radboud University between 2005 and 2011, where he completed both the Bachelor's and Master’s programmes in Public Administration.

After a period as a management trainee at the Dutch railway authority ProRail, he continued working there as a consultant and as a regional supply manager for the north-eastern Netherlands.

Jetten began his political career as a policy advisor for the D66 faction in the Senate of the States General and as the chairman of the Young Democrats.

In addition, between 2010 and 2017, he was a member of the municipal council of Nijmegen.

In the 2017 Dutch general election, he was elected as a member of the House of Representatives.

Jetten then became his party's spokesperson for climate, energy and gas, railways, democratic renewal and economic affairs.

Prior to his ministerial appointment, Jetten served as his party's parliamentary leader in the House of Representatives from 2018 to 2021.

On 9 October 2018, Jetten was chosen as the new parliamentary leader of D66 in the House of Representatives, succeeding Alexander Pechtold.

This did not automatically make him the new party leader as the new leader eventually was to be chosen in the 2020 Democrats 66 leadership election.

Aged 31, Jetten became the youngest ever parliamentary leader of D66.

After his election, Jetten faced criticism in Dutch media because of his relative young age.

When the fourth Rutte cabinet was sworn in on 10 January 2022, Jetten became Minister for Climate and Energy Policy.

Under his leadership, the Dutch government announced plans in 2022 to invest 750 million euros ($789 million) through to 2031 to have the country's gas network operator Gasunie develop a national hydrogen transportation network.

On 14 July 2023, Jetten announced his candidacy to become the next Leader of the D66.

He succeeded Sigrid Kaag after she announced that she would not lead D66 into the 2023 general election, due to the impact of the "hate, intimidation and threats" she receives on her family.

Jetten returned to the House of Representatives as parliamentary leader after the election.

Following Kaag's resignation effective 8 January 2024 to fill a role at the United Nations, Jetten took over her position as Deputy Prime Minister, and he served as acting Minister of Finance for four days.

However, his tasks for the latter were in practice delegated to State Secretary for Finance Marnix van Rij.

Jetten is openly gay, and has been in a relationship with Argentine field hockey player Nicolás Keenan, since 2023.

He was previously in a long-term relationship with his ex-boyfriend Sjoerd van Gils.

The two broke up in 2022.