By Anton Lutter.
This last part of my previous article, will focus on the frontrunners of the two government parties and some new contenders and smaller parties.
The largest government party, the VVD (Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie/Peoples party for Freedom and Democracy, liberal but in the Dutch context centre-right) is headed by the prime minister Mr. Mark Rutte. Born in The Hague in 1967 he has already a long career in politics.
During his history studies at Leiden University he became the president of the youth organization of the VVD. After his studies he worked for several companies at the same time being on the national board of the VVD. In 2002 he became Undersecretary in the Social Affairs and Employment ministry, until 2004 in the first and second Balkenende cabinet. In 2003 he was elected to the Tweede Kamer (parliament), but served only briefly to continue as undersecretary.
Again from 2004 until the fall of the Balkenende II cabinet in june 2006 Rutte served as Undersecretary for Higher Education and Science, within the Education, Culture and Science ministry. He then immediately returned to parliament and became the leader of the VVD parliamentary group. His leadership position within his party was consolidated after he won the contest for this position from Mrs. Rita Verdonk, the Minister of Justice.
He has been uncontested in this position as of now not in the least place because of the fact that he led his party to a large victory in the parliamentary elections in 2010 making the VVD, with 31 seats, the largest party in parliament for the first time ever. Rutte himself became the first liberal prime minister since Mr. Cort van der Linden became prime minister in 1913, at the same being the first prime minister for the VVD. As frontrunner in the 2014 elections he enlarged the VVD seats to 41 and until now is serving as prime minister. In the february 2017 elections he will be the frontrunner fort the fourth time.
The other government party is the PVDA (Partij van de Arbeid/Labour party, socialist). The PVDA is the only party which held a leadership contest for the next general elections. The contest in december 2016 was between Diederik Samsom and Lodewijk Asscher. Samsom born in Groningen 1971 and a nuclear physicist by trade, was elected to the Tweede Kamer in 2003 becoming the political leader of PVDA in 2012. The victorous contender Lodewijk Asscher and thus front runner in 2017 is the current deputy-prime minister and Minister of Social Affairs and Employment. Asscher was born in 1974 in Amsterdam and studie law at the University of Amsterdam earning a doctorate in law in 2002. His political career is local, entering the city council of Amsterdam in 2002. After the 2006 city council elections he served as alderman of Economics, Airport and Harbour, and deputy mayor of Amsterdam until 2010. From 2010 until 2012 he was an alderman of Finance in Amsterdam. From november 2012 until today he’s in the cabinet as a minister and is the PVDA frontrunner in the coming elections.
Of the smaller parties the Partij van de Dieren (Party for the Animals) is the Dutch party which garnered world wide attention for the sole reason being the only party ever founded particularly for animal welfare. Its frontrunner and current political leader is Marianne Thieme, born in Ede in 1972. She studied law at Erasmus University in Rotterdam and attended Sorbonne. During her studies she also became a vegetarian. In 2002 she founded the above party which obtained two seats in the Tweede Kamer during the 2016 elections and earlier in 2014 they won a seat in European Parliament. Before entering parliament Mrs. Thieme worked for animal welfare organizations.
In 2015 two PVDA members of the parliament – Tunahan Kuzu and Selçuk Öztürk – left their group in opposition to Minister Asscher’s position in the integration debate. They founded DENK (=THINK) party which has clear viewpoints on migration and integration basically in opposition to the PVV. Tunuhan Kuzu, a Dutchman of Turkish background is a member of the Tweede Kamer since 2012 and studied public administration at Erasmus University. Before he entered parliament he was a healthcare advisor at PriceWaterhouseCooper and a member of Rotterdam city council between 2008 and 2012. He is the parties frontrunner in the comming elections.
To end the Profiles in Leadership it is interesting to look at the results of the so-called Ukraine Referendum held in april 2016. Important promoters of the “no” to the association agreement with Ukraine, which won at the end – Mr. Jan Roos, and Mr. Thierry Baudet – are starting their own political party. Also the leading “no” organization GeenPeil, has changed into a political party of which journalist Jan Dijkgraaf will be frontrunner. Journalist Jan Roos will be frontrunner of the VoorNederland (For The Netherlands, VNL) party which was founded in 2014 by two members of parliament who left the PVV group.
Thierry Baudet, who is a doctor of law from Leiden University and a known author on politics is the founder of thinktank Forum voor Democratie (Forum for Democracy) also in 2014. Mr. Baudet is the frontrunner and will compete in the upcoming elections. All three parties are considered leaning to the right.
About the author:
Mr. Anton Lutter is a former City Councillor of The Hague.
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