Nostalgia: 4 Dutch politicians that were
Because the uk isn't the only country with interesting politicians from former governments to lol at or ship.
Jan Peter Balkenende
Ok, so he’s not very hot. But he is very very lulzy and herpderp. And he was the PM.
Party: CDA (Christian Democratic Appeal, centre-right christians).
Prime Minister: 2002-2010
Birthdate: May 7th, 1956
Family: Married, 1 daughter.
Political facts:
- Presided over four successive coalitions, all of which resigned before the end of their 4 years.
- When a disastrous election campaign ended a huge loss of seats for the CDA, he resigned as party leader in 2010, with tears in his eyes. CDA still became part of the coalition though..
Lolitical facts:
- Often referred to as ‘Harry Potter’. He cleverly used this in his first election campaign, playing the lulzy underdog on purpose.
- Married to a rather bamfy lawyer, Bianca Hoogendijk (yes, she kept her own name). She’s nicknamed ‘the silent doctor’ for the work she does for her husband behind the scenes and the fact that she has a PhD.
- Involved in series of herpderp political fails. He didn’t hug hoodies but he did fall of a skateboard and was criticized for wearing a t-shirt that said ‘fuck drugs’.
Wouter Bos
Party: PvdA (Dutch Labour). Party leader 2002-2010
Birthdate: June 14th, 1963
Family: Married, 3 children
Political facts:
- Deputy Prime minister in 2007-2010, under PM Balkenende
- Left politics in 2010 to spend more time with his family.
Lolitical facts:
- Besides being deputy PM to Harry Potter and not being all that unpleasant to look at (IMO), he’s not very lolitical.
Pim Fortuyn
Well, there really isn’t a quick way to explain this guy, and there certainly isn’t any way to avoid srs bsnss. BUT he is getting shipped on the anon meme so here we go.
Party: Lijst Pim Fortuyn (yes, he had his own party named ‘List Pim Fortuyn’).
Birthdate: February 19th, 1948
Date of death: May 6th, 2002. Assasinated.
Political facts:
- Jumped from party to party before starting his own party. From Labour he went to the VVD, then became leader of a local party Leefbaar Rotterdam before staring his own party.
- Did not consider himself left or right wing but was widely considered to be very right wing and very nationalistic. He was very strongly anti-Islam and anti-immigration. He didn’t see a place for muslims in the Netherlands.
- Extremely charismatic and an extremely dominant debater. He used one-liners and aggressive intimidation of his debating partners to reduce his political enemies to stammering messes.
- Was driven by a sense of destiny, talking about ‘when I’m prime minister’ as if the fact was inevitable. He also described his political career as his duty and promised voters ‘I will be prime minister of this country, just you watch’.
- Assassinated in 2002 by a deranged environmentalist, after years of receiving death threats.
Lolitical facts:
- Won the ‘best dressed politician’ award several times in a row because of his stunning choices of Italian designer suits and ties.
- Lived in a very luxuriously decorated small castle with his butler and his driver. He had various portraits of himself around the castle and also had a summer home in Italy.
- Started out as a professor in Sociology and used the title ‘professor’ in politics even though he officially had no claim to the title after 1995.
- Kept two small dogs called Carla and Kenneth. Stated in his will that his dogs were to be buried with him in Italy. Carla joined him in 2010, Kenneth is still alive.
- Not only was he the only politician high up in the Dutch political spectrum to be openly gay, he was probably the only politician in the world to be openly kinky. He was out in an ‘ask me anything’ sort of way, talking freely about his love for anonymous sex and darkrooms and his relationships with very young men. When asked whether he shaved his pubic hair, he commented that the curious boys of Holland should just ‘come and have a look’.
- Said he had one true love, named Ari, whom would always be the love of his life despite the fact that they were no longer seeing each other.
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Paul Rosenmöller
Party: Groen Links (Green left, the name says it all, doesn’t it? leftwing environmentalist).
Party leader 1994-2002
Birthdate: May 11th, 1956
Family: Married, had 5 children.
Political facts:
- Son of a rich catholic family. As a young man he became a Maoist communist, dropped out of college and took a job in the harbor with hopes of helping to bring about the workers revolution.
- He became more moderate by the end of the 80’s. He joined the newly formed Groen Links in 1989 and became party leader in a mere 5 years.
- One of the main political opponents of Pim fortuyn. He resigned shortly after the assassination of Pim Fortuyn, stating that he couldn’t deal with the death threats he was receiving.
- Femke Halsema succeeded him as party leader.
Lolitical facts:
- Rarely wears a tie, even at very formal occasions
- Loves travelling. He was constantly visiting foreign countries as a politician and now does the same as a reporter.
