The results are not yet completely official, but D66 seems to be the big winner of the elections. The party now has 26 seats. At number 33 on the list is Marike Hoekstra from Eelderwolde. If D66 starts supplying ministers for a cabinet, Hoekstra can move on and perhaps still take a seat in the House. She can also be directly elected as a Member of Parliament, through sufficient preferential votes.
It is quite a surprise that she may become a Member of Parliament after all. “I, of course, signed up myself this summer. So it is not a complete surprise. I thought: I am more or less the support faction. I try to support the list from Drenthe with my network. That is sufficient for me in that sense. So I never expected that this would still be possible,” says Hoekstra in the Radio Drenthe program. Cassata.
The election results were special for Hoekstra. “It is very surprising that it would be so good. At one point we realized that we were winning.”
Whether Hoekstra is ready for the House of Representatives yet? “You have a kind of process in which the top 20 receive a lot of attention and support for the campaign. And those who fall outside are fairly unelectable and have less support. But let’s wait patiently first.”
Hoekstra is an advisor and process director for Energy and Raw Materials Transition and a member of D66 in the Provincial Council. In the House of Representatives, she wants to work on sustainable policy that stimulates innovation, strengthens cooperation and restores trust between government and society. She is actively committed to increasing the visibility of women in the energy sector because, according to her, diversity is not an afterthought, but a prerequisite for real change.