Mr Jan-Peter Balkenende, who became Prime Minister of the Netherlands yesterday after just four years in national politics, is a Christian philosopher opposed to many of the country's more liberal laws on drugs and sex.
Mr Balkenende (46) - whose boyish looks and round glasses earned him the nickname "Harry Potter" after the fictional boy wizard - was asked by Queen Beatrix on Friday to form a government, seven weeks after the general election.
On entering parliament in 1998, he became head of the Christian Democrats (CDA) only last September after an internal power struggle, but led the party to unexpected victory in the May election after the murder of populist politician Pim Fortuyn sparked renewed debate about immigration and crime.
During its eight years in opposition the CDA had focused on traditional values and safety, as the ruling centre-left coalition pushed through liberal laws on euthanasia, prostitution and same-sex marriage.
And now he may be able to push the nation closer to his party's Christian roots at the head of a three-party coalition that will also include the Liberal party (VVD) and the Pim Fortuyn List.
Mr Balkenende, the son of a former grain merchant from the conservative Protestant stronghold of Zeeland province, is frequently portrayed in the Dutch media as a dull but reliable family man.
"I am supposed to be too clean, too Dutch reformed and too much like a professor, that makes me laugh," said Mr Balkenende, who has one daughter with his wife Bianca.
A professor of Christian social thought at Amsterdam's Free University, Mr Balkenende was virtually unknown as deputy of the CDA and initially seen by political commentators as an interim solution, not a man who could truly excite Dutch voters.
His staid image has become his trademark and his followers praise him for remaining natural and not succumbing to media pressure to glamorise his looks.
He takes in his stride the comparison with the boy wizard Harry Potter, even playing up the image by reading from the J.K. Rowling books when he visited schools on the campaign trail.
Mr Balkenende, who studied law and history in Amsterdam, projects the image the CDA wants - reliable and upright but not stuffy.
On his own website, the CDA leader lists his hobbies as "visiting art galleries, attending musicals and skiing" - all seen as very middle of the road.
In the uncertainty that paralysed the Netherlands after the murder of Mr Fortuyn in the days before the election, the CDA was one of the few established parties to gain seats, winning a total of 43 seats in the 150-member parliament.
When Mr Fortuyn was alive, Mr Balkenende never turned away from him as vehemently as the Labour Party or the rightist-liberal VVD, even though it brought him criticism from traditional CDA voters.