Editing Jaap de Hoop Scheffer (section)

=== Leader of Christian Democratic Appeal (1997–2001) ===
After the [[Leader of the Christian Democratic Appeal]] and Parliamentary leader of the CDA in the House of Representatives [[Enneüs Heerma]] announced that he was stepping down as leader and parliamentary leader following increasing criticism on his leadership, the CDA leadership approached De Hoop Scheffer as a candidate to succeed him. De Hoop Scheffer accepted and became leader and parliamentary leader on 27 March 1997.

For the [[1998 Dutch general election|1998 general election]] De Hoop Scheffer served as [[lead candidate]] and the CDA suffered a loss, losing 5 seats and now had 29 seats in the House of Representatives. On 1 October 2001 De Hoop Scheffer announced that he was stepping down as leader and parliamentary leader following an internal power struggle with the [[List of party chairs of the Christian Democratic Appeal|party chairman]] [[Marnix van Rij]] and that he would not stand for the election of 2002.