Outgoing Dutch finance minister Sigrid Kaag will not run in snap parliamentary elections after the government falls due to the impact on her family of the “hate, intimidation and threats” she was a victim of. as announced today.

Her centrist D66 party, one of the parties in the outgoing governing coalition, strongly opposed Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s plan to tighten restrictions on family reunification of asylum seekers, which caused the government to fall last week.

“The previous period (…) was accompanied by hatred, intimidation and threats,” said Kaag, the first female finance minister in a country that often clashes with southern European countries over budget issues.

“This has been a great burden for my family. It has been difficult for me at times, but bearable,” he added in a statement.

“For my family it is different (…) I have decided not to run for the position of the head of the party,” she concluded.

Kaag is according to Dutch media under high protection. Last year, an anti-vaccinationist appeared threateningly holding a lit torch in front of her residence. The daughters of the 61-year-old former diplomat had called in May for their mother to leave politics, fearing for her safety.

Minister of Foreign Trade and Cooperation and Development (2017-2021) and for a short time Minister of Foreign Affairs, she was also the target of racist attacks linked to her husband’s Palestinian origin.

Politicians strongly condemned the attacks on Kaag, calling them misogynistic.

Kaag “counted a lot for the Netherlands. Privately, she had to pay an unacceptable price for that,” outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte said on Twitter.

The head of the liberal right-wing VVD party said earlier this week he would retire from politics after snap elections after nearly 13 years as Dutch prime minister, a record for longest tenure.

His government collapsed on Friday after he proposed divisive measures on the reception of asylum seekers, knowing that two of the four parties in his ruling coalition disagreed.

Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra also announced on Monday, July 10, that he is stepping down from the leadership of the Christian Democratic Party CDA. According to local media, D66 and CDA may be the big losers of the upcoming elections.