Burger was appointed as
Minister for Return Policy in the
Gerbrandy II cabinet by
Queen Wilhelmina, taking office on 11 August 1943. Burger was appointed as
Minister of the Interior following the resignation of
Hendrik van Boeijen, taking office on 31 May 1944. On 27 January 1945 Burger was forced to resign by Prime Minister
Pieter Sjoerds Gerbrandy following an impromptu remark during a radio address where he differentiated between "wrongful" Dutch civilians (
foute Nederlanders) and Dutch civilians who made a mistake (
Nederlanders die een fout hebben gemaakt) during the War, but because Gerbrandy did not discuss this with rest of the cabinet all Social Democratic Workers' Party cabinet members resigned in response and the cabinet continued to serve in a
demissionary capacity. Following the end of
World War II Queen Wilhelmina ordered a
Recall of Parliament and Burger was appointment to the
House of Representatives taking the place of the deceased
Theo van der Waerden, taking office on 20 November 1945 serving as a
frontbencher and
spokesperson for
the Interior and the
de facto Whip. On 9 February 1946 the Social Democratic Workers' Party (SDAP), the
Free-thinking Democratic League (VDB) and the
Christian Democratic Union (CDU) chose to merge in a
political alliance to form the Labour Party (PvdA), with Burger as one of the co-founders. Burger also became active in the
public sector and worked as media administrator for the
public broadcaster VARA serving as chairman of the supervisory board from 12 February 1949 until 20 December 1966. After the
parliamentary leader of the Labour Party in the House of Representatives
Marinus van der Goes van Naters announced he was stepping down following a conflict with Prime Minister and
Leader of the Labour Party Willem Drees, the party leadership approached
Leen Donker as his successor but the day before he took office parliamentary leader-designate Donker took a leave of absence for health reasons and the party leadership approached Burger as interim parliamentary leader, serving from 16 January 1951 until 18 September 1951. After the
1952 general election, Donker was appointed as
Minister of Justice in the
Drees II cabinet and the Labour Party leadership approached Burger as parliamentary leader, taking office on 2 September 1952. Burger also served as president of the
Benelux Parliament from 1 January 1958 until 1 January 1959. On 11 December 1958 the
Drees III cabinet fell and incumbent Prime Minister and Leader of the Labour Party Drees announced his retirement from national politics and stated that he would not stand for the
1959 general election, the Labour Party leadership approached Burger as his successor, Burger accepted and became the Leader and one of the
lead candidates, taking office on 22 December 1958. The Labour Party suffered a small loss, losing 2 seats and fell back as the second largest party and now had 48 seats in the House of Representatives. On 16 September 1962 Burger announced that he was stepping down as party leader and parliamentary leader following increasing criticism on his leadership. Burger remained in active in national politics, he was elected to the
Senate after the
1963 Senate election, taking office on 5 June 1963 serving as a frontbencher and spokesperson for defence and deputy spokesperson for foreign affairs, European affairs and
NATO. Burger was selected as a
Member of the European Parliament and
dual served in those positions, taking office on 20 October 1966. After the delegation leader of the Labour Party in the European Parliament
Marinus van der Goes van Naters resigned, Burger was appointed as delegation leader, taking office on 7 May 1967. Burger was nominated as a
Member of the Council of State, serving from 1 October 1970 until 1 September 1979. After his retirement Burger occupied numerous seats as a nonprofit director for supervisory boards for several international non-governmental organizations and research institutes (
International Institute of Social History,
Transnational Institute,
Royal Netherlands Historical Society,
Netherlands Atlantic Association and the
Rijksmuseum) and as an advocate and lobbyist for
European integration,
Benelux cooperation and serving on several commissions for the
European Economic Community and
state commissions on behalf of the Dutch government. ==Decorations==