Minister Ernst Kuipers of Public Health grew up in Meppel. “If a corona pandemic breaks out again, we want to avoid closing schools as much as possible”

Minister Ernst Kuipers (62) of Public Health, Welfare and Sport (D66) sits in shirtsleeves at a conference table in his spacious, modern office in the department of The Hague. He is in a great mood. Understandable if you are invited to start the conversation with a look back at your childhood in Meppel. The eldest son of the sympathetic and hardworking GP Kuipers from the Wibautstraat and later the Linthorst Homanstraat looks back on an “absolutely happy childhood”.