Wybren van Haga

Last updated

Wybren van Haga
WybrenvanHaga2019.jpg
Van Haga in 2019
Member of the House of Representatives
In office
31 October 2017 –5 December 2023
Personal details
Born
Wybren Ridley van Haga

(1967-01-31) 31 January 1967 (age 57)
The Hague, Netherlands
Political party Belang van Nederland (since 2021)
Other political
affiliations
Residence Haarlem
Alma mater Delft University of Technology
Occupation
  • Politician
  • businessman
ProfessionEngineer

Wybren Ridley van Haga (born 31 January 1967) is a Dutch politician and engineer who was a member of the House of Representatives between 2017 and 2023. He was initially elected as a member of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), but was expelled from the party in 2019, causing the third Rutte cabinet to lose its parliamentary majority. Van Haga subsequently sat as an independent MP before joining Thierry Baudet's Forum for Democracy party, where he was placed second on the party list in the 2021 election. He has since quit Forum for Democracy and created his own political party Belang van Nederland.

Contents

Early life, education and military service

Van Haga was born in 1967 in The Hague and grew up in Haarlem. His father is Dutch and his mother was originally from Britain. [1] He completed the gymnasium with the natural sciences specialization. He studied electrical engineering at the Delft University of Technology. [2] He also completed the first phase of a law study at Leiden University. He served his mandatory military service as a commando. [2]

Business career

He subsequently worked as an engineer for the Shell Oil Company, and was based variously in Scotland, Gabon and Oman before starting a property development business. [3]

Political career

Van Haga first joined the VVD in 1992. In 2010, he was elected as a municipal councilor in Haarlem. [4] During the 2017 general election, he was elected as an MP for the VVD in the House of Representatives. During the election, his candidacy was endorsed by Labour Party politician and former mayor of Haarlem Bernt Schneiders. [5]

In 2017, Van Haga was investigated over an alleged concealment of a number of problems with local regulations during his time as a councilor. [6] In 2019, he was expelled from the VVD parliamentary group after he was convicted for drunk driving and accused of interfering with his business operation as an MP. [7] This caused the third Rutte cabinet to lose their parliamentary majority. Van Haga subsequently sat as an independent before announcing he had become a member of the Forum for Democracy party. [8] Van Haga already had close ties with the FvD group as an independent.

Van Haga left FvD together with two others in response to a poster put out by the party which compared the COVID-19 lockdowns to the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. He has since created his own political party called Belang van Nederland (BVNL). The new party had three seats in the House of Representatives. [a] Van Haga has described it as 'classical liberal' and 'classical right-wing'. [9] He ran for re-election in November 2023, but BVNL did not win any seats. He again led his party in the June 2024 European Parliament election, but the BVNL's vote share of 0.4% was insufficient for a seat. [10] [11]

Personal life

Van Haga is married and has four children. [1]

Electoral history

Electoral history of Wybren van Haga
YearBodyPartyPos.VotesResultRef.
Party seatsIndividual
2010 Haarlem Municipal Council VVD 1135Lost [b]
2014 Haarlem Municipal CouncilVVD5Won
2017 House of Representatives VVD412,15633Lost [b] [12]
2018 Haarlem Municipal CouncilVVD151275Lost
2021 House of Representatives FVD 2241,1938Won [13]
2022 Haarlem Municipal Council BVNL 16 [c] 4001Lost
2022 Amsterdam Municipal CouncilBVNL12 [c] 4630Lost
2022 Voorne aan Zee Municipal CouncilBVNL11 [c] 1712Lost
2023 House of RepresentativesBVNL 1 37,4720Lost [10]
2024 European Parliament BVNL 1 19,5020Lost [11]

Notes

  1. ↑ Formally, the parliamentary group was known as Group Van Haga (Dutch: Groep Van Haga)
  2. 1 2 Van Haga was appointed to the body later during the term due to a vacancy.
  3. 1 2 3 Van Haga participated as lijstduwer .

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References

  1. 1 2 "Home – 2". vanhaga.nl. Retrieved 13 November 2021.
  2. 1 2 Ton F. van Dijk (6 August 2018). "Tweede Kamerlid Wybren van Haga door VVD-fractie onder curatele gesteld".
  3. ↑ 76ste Kamerlid vooral bekend om gedoe met zijn pandjes, NOS, 24 September 2019
  4. ↑ Pandjesbezitter Wybren van Haga (VVD) voert politiek alsof het oorlog is, NRC Handelsblad, 11 March 2018
  5. ↑ Riessen, Door Paul van (20 December 2017). "Typisch: de innige band van de in opspraak geraakte VVD'er Van Haga met Bernt Schneiders (PvdA)". www.quotenet.nl. Retrieved 13 November 2021.
  6. ↑ VVD onderzoekt Kamerlid Wybren van Haga, NRC Handelsblad, 19 December 2017
  7. ↑ Van Haga is weg, wat doet hij met zijn zetel?, NRC Handelsblad, 24 September 2019
  8. ↑ Forum voor Democratie presenteert top 10 kandidaten Tweede Kamer, NOS.nl, 31 October 2020
  9. ↑ "Ex-FvD MP Wybren van Haga starts new party". netherlandsnewslive.com. 2 July 2021.
  10. 1 2 "Proces-verbaal van de uitslag van de verkiezing van de Tweede Kamer der Staten-Generaal 2023 d.d. 4 december 2023" [Report of the results of the election of the House of Representatives on 4 December 2023](PDF). Dutch Electoral Council (in Dutch). 4 December 2023. pp. 258–259. Retrieved 21 December 2023.
  11. 1 2 "Proces-verbaal centraal stembureau uitslag verkiezing Europees Parlement Model P22-1" [Central electoral council report of the results of the election of the European Parliament Model P22-1](PDF). Dutch Electoral Council (in Dutch). 19 June 2024. pp. 8, 58–59. Retrieved 18 August 2024.
  12. ↑ "Uitslag Tweede Kamerverkiezing 2017 (getekend exemplaar)" [Results House of Representatives 2017 (signed example)](PDF). Dutch Electoral Council (in Dutch). 21 March 2017. pp. 22–23. Retrieved 21 December 2023.
  13. ↑ "Proces-verbaal verkiezingsuitslag Tweede Kamer 2021" [Report of the election results House of Representatives 2021](PDF). Dutch Electoral Council (in Dutch). 29 March 2021. pp. 145–146. Retrieved 21 December 2023.
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