In 1967, Wiegel was elected to the
House of Representatives, where he served as spokesperson for local government affairs. In 1971, at the age of thirty, he became the leader of his party. During the period of the
Den Uyl cabinet, Wiegel acted as the main
Leader of the Opposition against the cabinet and
Prime Minister Joop den Uyl. In 1977, he negotiated the formation of the
Van Agt-Wiegel cabinet; in this cabinet he became
Minister of the Interior and
Deputy Prime Minister and prepared the constitutional revision of 1983. In 1995, Wiegel was elected to the
Senate. In the Senate, he chaired the parliamentary committees for General Affairs and the Interior, and served as spokesperson for the interior, governmental reforms and the
Royal Family. In 1999, Wiegel caused a brief cabinet crisis by voting against the constitutional revision that would make national
referendums possible. This crisis is called the "Night of Wiegel". Shortly after it, in 2000, he left the Senate. Wiegel led the VVD in the general elections of
1972,
1977 and
1981. During his leadership, the VVD shifted its orientation away from the upper class and towards the middle class and educated workers; this led to electoral success. In 1982, Wiegel left national politics. He was awarded honorary membership of the VVD and became
Queen's Commissioner of Friesland from 16 June 1982 until 1 February 1994. During his period as Queen's Commissioner, Wiegel became known as the "Oracle of
Diever", because he played an important role advising the VVD and commenting on events in national politics. In 1986, Wiegel was asked to return to the
Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations, but he refused.
Possible return to politics On the evening of 6 May 2002 in
Leeuwarden, Weigel was to meet with
Pim Fortuyn, who saw in him a suitable Prime Minister. Earlier that day, however, Fortuyn was assassinated in
Hilversum. In October 2005, the local branch of the VVD in
Alphen aan den Rijn called on other local branches to sign a petition to get Wiegel back into active politics. More than 90% of the branches supported this petition. Wiegel wanted to announce in March/April 2006 his decision as to whether or not he was making a comeback. Then–party leader
Jozias van Aartsen stated in January 2006 that Wiegel most likely would be the VVD's candidate for prime minister in the 2007 general election. On 8 March 2006, the day after a poor showing of the VVD in the
2006 municipal elections, Wiegel issued a press statement to the effect that he would not return to Dutch politics. On 22 November 2007, Wiegel called for a broad liberal movement consisting of the VVD, the
Party for Freedom of
Geert Wilders,
Rita Verdonk's
Proud of the Netherlands and the
Democrats 66. Besides Rita Verdonk, none of these parties favour this plan. On 15 September 2009, he repeated these words in the morning bulletin
Goodmorning Netherlands Wiegel then called his party should seek cooperation with the
Party for Freedom. Thirty years after leaving national politics, Wiegel was still mentioned often as a potential Prime Minister. He still was very popular among VVD party members in the Netherlands up until his death. He "threatened" to return to national politics a number of times, usually resulting in the VVD going up in the polls. His opponents admonished this behaviour, implying that he was just trying to keep himself from being forgotten. On 12 April 2010, during a broadcast of the TV programme
De Wereld Draait Door, Wiegel humoristically joked that he had been the best Prime Minister the Netherlands had never had. That view was shared by politician
Joost Eerdmans on Wiegel's seventieth birthday. On 29 May 2012, in an interview with the
Algemeen Dagblad, he expressed criticism on the agreement the VVD and the
Christian Democratic Appeal made with the
Democrats 66,
GroenLinks and
ChristianUnion on the budgetary crisis and called it "a serious strategic error". ==Personal life and death==