Interior Minister Guusje ter Horst has appointed a woman police superintendent for Zeeland province.

The appointee, Letty Demmers, only joined the police force in 2008, after a career in local administration. Ms Demmers was mayor of the town of Best, the first elected mayor of the Netherlands. Mayors are generally appointed by the government, but some cities were allowed to experiment with mayoral elections.

Finding a new police chief for the Zeeland force was fraught with difficulties. Initially it appeared that the province, whose population is often described as generally traditional and religious, was unwilling to accept a woman in that position. Minister Ter Horst, however, pressed her point that by 2025 a quarter of the police superintendents should be either women or people of immigrant origin.

Ms Demmers is the successor to Zeeland police chief Fup Goudswaard, who was discharged last year because the intelligence service AIVD judges he was vulnerable to blackmail. Mr Goudswaard was accused of having had extramarital affairs with his subordinates. He appealed against his dismissal, but a judge upheld the AIVD's accusations.

Letty Demmers (Photo: best-online.nl)