Rudolf de Korte

Rudolf de Korte (1985)

Rudolf Willem de Korte (born July 8, 1936 in The Hague ; † January 9, 2020 in Wassenaar ) was a Dutch economic manager and politician of the People's Party for Vrijheid en Democratie (VVD), who was an intermittent member of the Second Chamber between 1977 and 1986 States General and in 1986 temporarily Minister of the Interior in the first cabinet of Prime Minister Ruud Lubbers .

In the second cabinet of Prime Minister Lubbers, he held the offices of Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Economics from 1986 to 1989 and was also temporarily Chairman of the VVD in 1986. During his tenure as Minister of Economic Affairs, the law on investment accounting was passed. He was then again a member of the Second Chamber of the States General between 1989 and 1995 and then Vice President of the European Investment Bank (EIB) in Luxembourg from 1995 to 2001 .

Life

Degree and business manager

De Korte, the son of a Dutch father and a German mother, began studying chemistry at the University of Leiden in September 1954 after attending the public Maerlant Lyceum in The Hague , which he graduated cum laude on October 18, 1961. Afterwards he was initially assistant for organic chemistry and between November 1, 1962 and November 1, 1963 research assistant in the department of organic chemistry at the University of Leiden.

On 21 May 1964 he completed his doctorate for a doctorate at the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences at the State University of Leiden with the thesis Oxydaties met maganiacetaat in azijnzuur off in the the oxidation of manganese acetate in acetic dealt. He then completed a seminar in business administration at Harvard Business School and the Cranfield School of Management in 1964 and then worked in the private sector in Hong Kong between 1964 and 1966 before working in the private sector in Ethiopia from 1967 to 1968 .

After returning to the Netherlands, de Korte was first sales manager from 1969 to 1971 and then director of the candle factory NV Unilever-Emery in Gouda between 1972 and 1977 .

Party official, member of the Second Chamber and Minister of the Interior

De Korte began his political career when he became a member of the main board of the VVD in 1970 and was also secretary of the party's executive board from 1971 to 1978. In this function he was also the head of the election campaign for the elections to the Second Chamber in 1972, from which the VVD emerged with 14.4 percent of the vote and 22 seats. He was then also a member of the executive board of VVD between 1972 and 1978. He also acted temporarily as chairman of the VVD Propaganda Commission and was also a member of the editorial board of the party-affiliated newspaper Vrijheid en Democratie . In 1977 he was again head of the election campaign for the elections to the Second Chamber, in which the VVD was able to improve its result to 17.9 percent this time and thus won 28 seats.

On December 22, 1977, de Korte himself became a member of the Second Chamber of the States General for the first time as a candidate of the VVD and was a member of this until March 12, 1986. He then acted as spokesman for the VVD parliamentary group for social affairs, employment and income policy, as well as for financial and economic policy issues.

At the same time he was between September 5, 1978 and September 7, 1982 member of the Wassenaar City Council . In addition, he was involved as a representative of the Netherlands in the executive board of the Liberal International and was between November 1982 and January 1986 Second Deputy Chairman of the VVD parliamentary group in the Second Chamber of the States General. In addition, from November 1983 to February 1985 he was a member of the board of trustees of the party-affiliated Benjamin Marius Telders Foundation (Prof. Mr. BM Teldersstichting) .

Prime Minister Ruud Lubbers appointed de Korte on March 12, 1986 to succeed Frits Korthals Altes as Minister of the Interior (Minister van Binnenlandse Zaken) in his first cabinet, to which he was a member until July 14, 1986. At the same time he was again a member of the Second Chamber of the States General between June 3 and July 14, 1986.

Vice Prime Minister, Economy Minister and Vice President of the EIB

De Korte, who belonged to the working group on forming a government (format team) between May 26 and July 14, 1986, was subsequently appointed by Prime Minister Lubbers to his second cabinet on July 14, 1986, in which he remained until November 7, 1989 took over the office of Minister of Economics (Minister van Economische Zaken) . At the same time he held the office of Vice-Prime Minister (Viceminister-President) in the third Lubbers cabinet from July 14, 1986 to November 7, 1989 and was thus Lubbers' deputy.

De Korte, along with politicians such as Loek Hermans and Albert-Jan Evenhuis, was one of the confidants of Ed Nijpels , who was in office from 1982 to 1986, party chairman (Politiek Leider) of the VVD , and took over this function from him on July 9, 1986, before he left on December 15, 1986 was replaced by Joris Voorhoeve . On September 14, 1989 he was re-elected as a member of the Second Chamber of the States General for the VVD and was a member of this until September 1, 1995.

For his long service, de Korte was appointed commander of the Order of Orange-Nassau on November 20, 1989 .

After leaving the Second Chamber of the States General, de Korte became Vice-President of the Luxembourg- based European Investment Bank (EIB) on September 1, 1995 and held this position until September 1, 2001. In 2001 he became an alternate member of the Board of Directors of the EIB.

His marriage to Karin Laetitia Munk in January 1966 resulted in a son and a daughter.

Publications

• Oxydaties met maganiacetaat in azijnzuur , dissertation, 1964
• Naar een vrije samenleving. Een nieuw-liberale toekomstvisie , 1979

Web links

• Parlement & Politiek

Individual evidence

1. ↑ "Oud-minister Rudolf de Korte (83) overleden" , NOS, January 11, 2020 (nl)