Wilhelmus Simon Petrus Fortuijn, known as Pim Fortuyn, was a Dutch politician, author, civil servant, businessman, sociologist and academic who founded the party Pim Fortuyn List in 2002.
The People's Party for Freedom and Democracy is a conservative-liberal political party in the Netherlands. The VVD, whose forerunner was the Freedom Party, is a party of the centre-right, which promotes private enterprise and economic liberalism.
Andreas Antonius Maria "Dries" van Agt was a Dutch politician, jurist and diplomat who served as Prime Minister of the Netherlands from 19 December 1977 until 4 November 1982. He was a prominent leader of the Catholic People's Party (KVP) and later its successor party, the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA).
General elections were held in the Netherlands on 15 May 2002. The elections were amongst the most dramatic in Dutch history, not just in terms of the electoral results, as they were completely overshadowed by the assassination of leader Pim Fortuyn only nine days before election day.
Femke Halsema is a Dutch politician and filmmaker. On 27 June 2018, she was appointed Mayor of Amsterdam and began serving a six-year term on 12 July 2018. She is the first woman to hold the position on a non-interim basis. She previously was a member of the House of Representatives for the leftist green party GroenLinks from 1998 to 2011, and served as the party's parliamentary leader from 2002 to 2010.
Alexander Pechtold is a retired Dutch politician and art historian. He is a member of Democrats 66.
Hans Wiegel is a retired Dutch politician of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) and businessman.
Gregorius Nekschot is the pseudonym of a controversial Dutch cartoonist who mocks political ideas about Dutch multicultural society and the behaviour of people with rigid religious or ideological views. Islam is frequently subject of his cartoons. Gregorius Nekschot publishes his cartoons and satire mostly on his own website. His cartoons are also available in print from one publisher. On May 13, 2008, the cartoonist was arrested and taken into custody for interrogation. He was released after 30 hours, but it was expected that he would be prosecuted for discriminatory speech, insulting certain groups in society on the basis of their race or beliefs and possibly also for the crime of inciting hatred. His arrest has caused much debate in the press and parliament in what has been coined The Affair by Trouw newspaper on May 24, 2008. Charges against him were eventually dropped in September 2010. In December 2011 he announced he would no longer publish cartoons.
Maxime Jacques Marcel Verhagen is a retired Dutch politician and historian. A member of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA), he served as Deputy Prime Minister of the Netherlands from 2010 to 2012 under Prime Minister Mark Rutte.
Mohammed Benzakour is a Moroccan-Dutch columnist, essayist, poet, writer and politician. He is the third child in a family of five. At age three, he and mother and siblings settle in Zwijndrecht, Netherlands, where his father worked. He graduated from high school at vwo level and studied sociology at Leiden University and later political science and moved to Rotterdam to finish his master. Meanwhile, he joined the Labour Party. He started his journalism career working for De Volkskrant and also published in NRC Handelsblad, De Groene Amsterdammer and Vrij Nederland. He received the ASN Media Prize in 1999 and the Silver Zebra in 2001 for insights in a 'society in motion'. He later published two books, Abou Jahjah: Nieuwlichter of Oplichter. De demonisering van een politiek rebel in 2004 and Osama's Grot, Allah, Holland en ik, a compilation of his columns, articles and essays from 2001 until 2005, the year of publication. In that same year he also won the Peace Prize for Journalism. In 2008 his 'Stinkende Heelmeesters' was published, a compilation of essays, reviews, columns and reports from 2001 to 2008.
Jozef Franciscus Bernard "Jos" van Rey is a Dutch businessman and politician from Roermond. He has been a member of the municipal council of Roermond for the Liberal People's Party Roermond since 2014 and a member of the States of Limburg for the People's Party Limburg since 2015.
Henri Maria Dymphna André Laurent "Rik" Torfs is a Belgian canon law scholar and media personality. He is a former Senator for the Christian Democratic and Flemish party in the Belgian Federal Parliament and a former Rector of the Catholic University of Leuven.
Sybrand van Haersma Buma is a Dutch politician serving as Mayor of Leeuwarden since 2019. Until 2019, he was a member of the House of Representatives from 2002 who also served as the parliamentary leader of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) from 2010 and as the leader of his party from 2012.
The Party for Freedom is a nationalist and right-wing populist political party in the Netherlands. Since the early 2020s, the party has rapidly grown in popularity, gaining significant support for its anti-immigration positions. After the 2023 general elections, it became the largest party in the House of Representatives.
Johannes Hermanus "Han" ten Broeke is a Dutch politician who served as a member of the House of Representatives from 30 November 2006 until 4 September 2018. A member of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy, he focused his parliamentary work on matters of foreign policy and the Armed forces of the Netherlands.
Sharia4Holland was an Islamist movement, openly seeking to institute Sharia law in the Netherlands. The group was an offshoot of the Belgian extremist network Sharia4Belgium.
Paul Bernard Cliteur is a Dutch professor of jurisprudence at Leiden University, as well as a politician, philosopher, writer, publicist and columnist. He is known for his conservative perspective, his atheism, his republicanism, and his dislike of Islam. He is a member of De Vrije Gedachte. Since 2015, Cliteur is a member of the Dutch political party Forum voor Democratie, where he is chairman of the advisory board and the party's official think tank. In 2019 he was elected to be parliamentary group leader for Forum voor Democratie in the Dutch Senate.
Jacob Jan "Jaap" Metz was a Dutch politician. He was a member of the House of Representatives for the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy between 1982 and 1986. Before his time in office Metz was a journalist at De Telegraaf.
Olaf René Ephraim is a Dutch investment banker and politician. He worked for the banks MeesPierson and Fortis before joining the conservative and right-wing populist party Forum for Democracy (FvD). Ephraim served as the party's treasurer and was elected to the House of Representatives in the 2021 general election. He left Forum for Democracy in May 2021 and joined Wybren van Haga's new political party Belang van Nederland (BVNL). He left its parliamentary caucus ahead of the 2023 general election, continuing as an independent politician, but he retained his membership of BVNL.
Frederik Jan Harm "Freek" Jansen is a Dutch politician of the right-wing populist party Forum for Democracy (FvD). He served as a member of the House of Representatives and as chair of the FvD's youth wing.
