Pieter Grinwis | |
---|---|
Member of the House of Representatives | |
Assumed office 31 March 2021 | |
Member of The Hague municipal council | |
In office 27 March 2014 –15 April 2021 [1] | |
Succeeded by | Judith Klokkenburg |
Personal details | |
Born | Pieter Aren Grinwis [2] 12 October 1979 Ouddorp,Netherlands |
Political party | Christian Union |
Children | 4 |
Alma mater |
|
Pieter Aren Grinwis (born 12 October 1979) is a Dutch politician, who has been serving as a member of the House of Representatives on behalf of the Christian Union since March 2021. He previously served as a municipal councilor in The Hague and assisted the party in the House of Representatives and the Senate.
Grinwis was born in 1979 in Ouddorp in South Holland as the son of an arable farmer. He grew up in that village with his two younger brothers and attended the Middelharnis secondary school CSG Prins Maurits at vwo level. [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] Grinwis subsequently studied economics of agriculture and environment at Wageningen University and Research, but he did not finish his program due to an illness and a scooter accident. [8] He was a member of the Reformed Political Party (SGP) and of the Christian student organization C.S.F.R. [9] [10] He has told that he ended up at the Christian Union due to senator and philosopher Egbert Schuurman, one of his professors in university. [11]
Grinwis received a degree in public administration from Leiden University in 2020. [8] [4]
Starting in October 2002, he interned at the Christian Union's scientific institute and its European Parliament caucus. [12] He replaced a staff worker, who was on parental leave, the following year and got a permanent position as policy officer of the House caucus in 2004. [3] [9] He served as the political assistant to state secretary and minister Tineke Huizinga starting in 2007. [3] [13] Besides, he was on Christian Union's 2006 election program committee, and he would later also help write the programs for the general elections in 2010, 2012, 2017, and 2021. [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] In 2010, he became a political and financial–economic advisor of Wim Kuijken, the commissioner of the Delta Programme, which aims to prevent flooding. Grinwis had been involved in the creation of the governmental cooperation as Huizinga's assistant and continued working there until 2015. [19] [20]
Grinwis was the lijsttrekker of the shared list of the Christian Union and the SGP during the 2014 municipal election in The Hague. Both parties had a history of cooperating in The Hague municipal politics with the exception of the previous election, when neither party won any seats in the council. [13] During the campaign, Grinwis advocated curbing prostitution in the city by introducing a ban on procuring. [21] He was elected and was installed on 27 March. [22] While in the municipal council, Grinwis also worked as a financial advisor for the Christian Union caucus in the House of Representatives and the Senate. [23] [24] Grinwis introduced over 65 motions and amendments that passed during his first term, more than any other councilor in The Hague in the same years. [25] In the 2017 election, he ran for MP, appearing on the 14th place of the Christian Union's party list. His party won five seats, while Grinwis received 269 preferential votes – not enough to be elected. [26] He served as a negotiator of the Christian Union concerned with financial policy during the government formation. [27] In that position, he found a way to prevent health insurance deductibles from having to increase despite European regulations by raising premiums. [28]
He was re-elected as municipal councilor in 2018, again being the lijsttrekker of the Christian Union and the SGP. [23] He favored leaving the Rotterdam–The Hague metropolitan area partnership, calling it undemocratic. [29] The council banned the sale of laughing gas on the streets in 2020, a year after Grinwis had first proposed it. [30]
In the 2021 general election, Grinwis appeared on the Christian Union's party list as the fifth candidate. [31] He designed a new tax system for the campaign, calling the current one "hopelessly unjust, complex, and individualistic". He said that the current system was focused too much on stimulating people to do paid work. [32] To make the system less complicated, he proposed abolishing allowances (toeslagen), exemptions, and most deductions, and – to compensate for this – he proposed instituting a single tax deduction for households, lowering income tax, and raising the minimum wage, the state pension, and the municipal welfare (bijstand) by 10%. [33] Furthermore, under the plan, corporate taxes would be increased. [32]
Grinwis was sworn into the House on 31 March after having been elected with 1,240 preference votes. [34] He was a member of the Committees for Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality, for Economic Affairs and Climate Policy, for Finance, for Infrastructure and Water Management, and for Public Expenditure, and he served as his party's spokesperson for agriculture, nature, food quality, finances, climate, energy, water management, housing, spatial planning, economic affairs, and infrastructure. [3] [35] Grinwis vacated his seat in The Hague municipal council on 15 April. [1]
He was involved in the creation of a €514 million national insulation program to make buildings more sustainable. In anticipation to the program, Grinwis presented together with the CDA and GroenLinks a twelve-point manifesto, which included making subsidies attractive to lower-income households and which had to be considered in the drafting of the actual program according to a passed motion. [36] [37] In the House, Grinwis also proposed for policy officers of the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality to be encouraged to intern at farms, nature organizations, and the NVWA, and he unsuccessfully called for a halt to the construction of new data centers due to their footprint and energy usage, when one in Zeewolde for Facebook was nearing approval. [38] [39] He brought forward a compromise in May 2022 when D66 and GroenLinks wanted to abolish unelected members of water councils through an initiative bill. Grinwis's amendment was carried to remove the unelected member of daily management and to fix the unelected water council members to two representing farmers and two representing nature organizations, thereby getting rid of company representatives. The bill subsequently passed the House. [40] In October 2022, Grinwis proposed a new tax on online shopping deliveries due to their greenhouse gas emissions and the nuisance caused by delivery vans. The money raised would be invested in small and medium-sized enterprises. [41]
Furthermore, Grinwis submitted an initiative bill with Henk Nijboer (Labour Party) to prohibit temporary rental contracts for houses in most cases. They had been allowed since 2016 to increase the stock of rental homes and accounted for one third of new contracts, but Grinwis argued that they had been ineffective and had caused uncertainty among renters. He decried an amendment proposed by the VVD and the CDA to include an exception for landlords with one unit who want to sell their property. A majority of the House favored the bill without the amendment after the CDA had dropped its support, and it was adopted by the Senate in November 2023. [42] [43] [44]
The National Political Index – an initiative to quantify the activities of members of parliament – concluded that Grinwis was the most active House member of the 2022/23 political year. He had ranked second the year before. [45]
Grinwis lives in The Hague, and he has a wife called Suzanne and four children. [3] [5]
Year | Body | Party | Pos. | Votes | Result | Ref. | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Party seats | Individual | |||||||
2017 | House of Representatives | Christian Union | 14 | 269 | 5 | Lost | [46] | |
2021 | House of Representatives | Christian Union | 5 | 1,240 | 5 | Won | [47] | |
2023 | House of Representatives | Christian Union | 2 | 4,449 | 3 | Won | [48] |
The Christian Union is a Christian-democratic political party in the Netherlands. The CU is a centrist party, maintaining more progressive stances on economic, immigration and environmental issues while holding more socially conservative positions on issues such as abortion and euthanasia. The party describes itself as "social Christian".
The Reformed Political Party is a conservative Calvinist political party in the Netherlands. The term Reformed is not a reference to political reform but is a synonym for Calvinism—a major branch of Protestantism. The SGP is the oldest political party in the Netherlands existing in its present form, and has been in opposition for its entire existence. Since 1925, it has won between 1.6% and 2.5% of the votes in general elections. Owing to its orthodox political ideals and its traditional role in the opposition, the party has been called a testimonial party. Since the general election of 2012, it has held three of the 150 seats of the House of Representatives.
The Party for the Animals is a political party in the Netherlands. Among its main goals are animal rights and animal welfare.
Arie Slob is a Dutch politician and history teacher who served as Minister for Primary and Secondary Education and Media in the Third Rutte cabinet from 26 October 2017 until 10 January 2022.
Simone Jeanet Kennedy-Doornbos is a Dutch politician of the Christian Union. Raised in a Reformed family in 't Harde, Kennedy studied medical biology at the University of Amsterdam. As a student, she ran for the municipal council of Amsterdam in 1991 as the lead candidate of the Reformed Political League (GPV) – a precursor of the Christian Union. She married historian James Kennedy in 1994, and the couple moved to Iowa that same year.
Pieter Herman Omtzigt is a Dutch politician who has served as a member of the House of Representatives since 2003 apart from a short interruption between June and October 2010. He was member of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA), but left in 2021 and continued as independent. In August 2023, he founded a new party called New Social Contract, its name taken from his 2021 manifesto. Three months later, his party won 20 out of 150 seats in the 2023 Dutch general election.
Michel Richard Joachim Rog is a Dutch politician and former trade union leader who served as a member of the House of Representatives from 2012 to 2021. A member of Democrats 66 (D66) until 2006, he joined the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) in 2012. He served as alderman in the municipal executive of Haarlem between 2020 and 2021.
Mirjam Hannah Bikker is a Dutch politician who has served as the leader of the Christian Union since January 2023. She is also a member of the House of Representatives since 2021. She was previously elected to the municipal council of Utrecht in 2006 and Senate in 2015.
Diederik J.H. van Dijk is a Dutch non-executive director and a politician of the Reformed Political Party (SGP). He served on the Senate between 2015 and 2023, and he has been on the House of Representatives since 2023.
General elections were held in the Netherlands from 15 to 17 March 2021 to elect all 150 members of the House of Representatives. Following the elections and lengthy coalition formation talks, the sitting government remained in power.
Stieneke Jannieta Femmelien van der Graaf is a Dutch politician and jurist who since 2022 has served as a member of the House of Representatives for the Christian Union (CU). She previously held a seat in the House from 2017 to 2021, with a brief interruption in 2019, when she was replaced by Nico Drost during her maternity leave. She started her political career in 2007 as party leader in the Provincial Council of Groningen.
Laurens Antonius Josephus Maria Dassen is a Dutch politician and former banker. Dassen grew up in Knegsel, studied business administration at Radboud University Nijmegen and worked for ABN AMRO for six years. He has been a member of Volt Netherlands since its foundation in 2018 and was elected to the House of Representatives as his party's lijsttrekker in the 2021 general election.
Don Guno Maria Ceder is a Dutch lawyer and politician, serving as a member of House of Representatives since the 2021 general election.
Inge van Dijk is a Dutch politician, serving as a member of the House of Representatives since the 2021 general election. She represents the political party Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA).
Barbara Catharina Kathmann is a Dutch politician, serving as a member of the House of Representatives since 2021. She is a member of the Labour Party (PvdA). Before being elected to the House, she served as a municipal councilor and alderwoman in her hometown Rotterdam. Kathmann has also worked in media and at two nonprofit organizations.
Ruben Pieter Brekelmans is a Dutch politician who has served as a member of the House of Representatives since 2021 on behalf of the conservative-liberal People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD). He previously worked as a political assistant and civil servant at a few government ministries. As a parliamentarian, he focuses his work on foreign affairs and migration.
A process of cabinet formation took place following the 2021 Dutch general election, leading to the formation of the Fourth Rutte cabinet in 2022. The coalition consisted of People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), Democrats 66 (D66), Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) and Christian Union (CU), the same parties that formed the preceding Third Rutte cabinet. At 299 days, it was the longest formation in Dutch history.
Henri Bontenbal is a Dutch politician and energy consultant who has served in the House of Representatives since 18 January 2022. He has been the leader of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) since 14 August 2023.
Peter Johannes "Peter" Valstar is a Dutch politician of the conservative liberal People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD). He worked as a press officer for the VVD, as the political assistant of Minister Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert and Prime Minister Mark Rutte, and as a spokesperson at the Ministry of Defence before being elected to the House of Representatives in March 2021.
Hendrik Jan Jacobus Talsma is a Dutch public prosecutor and politician. He became a member of the Senate on behalf of the Christian Union (CU) in April 2021 due to his participation in the 2019 election.