The tall and athletic 48-year-old from the Dutch centre-right CDA party faces a grilling in the European Parliament on Monday after his nomination to replace compatriot Frans Timmermans in the post of the continent's climate czar.
Formerly foreign minister in the outgoing cabinet of Prime Minister Mark Rutte, his appointment raised eyebrows at home and abroad.
A petition against his transfer to Brussels quickly garnered tens of thousands of signatures criticising the appointment of a "fossil fuel manager" given his Shell background.
Andy Palmen from Greenpeace Netherlands could scarcely contain his disbelief.
"Say what??? Hoekstra to Europe? On climate and nature? A former Shell employee, who gave billions in support to KLM without sustainable conditions, who caused the nitrogen crisis to explode and thus abandoned nature, should not be given such a crucial post," Palmen said on X, formerly Twitter.
Palmen was referring to controversial comments by Hoekstra in 2022 when he said that the government's aim to cut nitrogen emissions by 50 percent by 2030 was "not sacred" and that farmers should also "be able to earn a fair crust."
Hoekstra was finance minister when the Netherlands lifted its stake in struggling airline KLM-Air France, catching off guard the French government, who lashed out at the "unacceptable" behaviour of its normally close ally.
- 'Complete ignorance' -
But it was his comments as finance minister about the EU's southern countries during the Covid crisis that raised the most heckles and is bound to be thrown back at him in Monday's hearings.
He suggested an investigation be opened into why certain countries lacked the budgetary means to deal with the financial crisis that came with Covid, sparking outrage from the European south.
Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa did not mince his words.
"This type of answer shows complete ignorance and such recurring pettiness undermines the spirit of the European Union and represents a threat to the future of the European Union," said Costa.
Hoekstra faced fire even in the Dutch parliament for his comments, admitting finally that the communication could have been done differently.
But his hardline view on fiscal prudence was laid out clearly in a major speech on Europe in Berlin in 2019.
"Those who do not reform, who spend European money unwisely, and who do not respect the Stability and Growth Pact, can no longer claim European money," he told students at Berlin's Humboldt University.
Stamina is unlikely to be a problem. He told the Elsevier Weekblad weekly that he enjoyed long hard runs, swimming, and skating in the winter.
"I have a lot of energy that has to go somewhere. Until recently I exercised five to six times a week, but that is no longer possible. But two or three times is really the minimum," he said.
He found himself on thin ice, however, when he posted a picture of himself skating with multiple Olympic champion Sven Kramer, breaking Covid lockdown rules.
A law and history graduate of the University of Leiden, Hoekstra also studied in Rome, Singapore and Fontainebleau in France. He speaks fluent German and worked for Shell in Berlin and Hamburg, as well as consultancy firm McKinsey.
He was considered a huge talent within the CDA and was a high flyer, becoming the youngest from his party to enter the parliament, at the age of 35, before rising to become finance and then foreign minister.
According to Jaap Jansen, Dutch political journalist, criticism of Hoekstra over his climate credentials is "exaggerated."
"Wopke Hoekstra has been minister of finance and minister of foreign affairs... and climate has been one of the biggest political topics here in the Netherlands, if not the biggest," he told AFP.
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