Jan Peter Balkenende

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Jan Peter Balkenende
Prime Minister of the Netherlands
Incumbent
Assumed office  July 22, 2002
Monarch	Beatrix
Preceded by	Wim Kok
Chair of the Parliamentary Party - CDA House of Representatives
In office October 1, 2001 – July 22, 2002
Preceded by	Jaap de Hoop Scheffer
Succeeded by	Maxime Verhagen
Member of the House of Representatives
In office May 19, 1998 – July 22, 2002
Born	7 May 1956 (1956-05-07) (age 53) Biezelinge, Netherlands
Birth name	Jan Pieter Balkenende
Nationality	Dutch
Political party	CDA
Spouse	Bianca Hoogendijk
Residence	Capelle aan den IJssel
Alma mater	Vrije Universiteit (M.A., LL.M., Ph.D., Dr.h.c.) [1]
Occupation	Politician, Civil servant, Scientist, Professor [2]
Religion	Reformed Protestant
Website	Ministry of General Affairs

Jan Peter Balkenende (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈjɑn ˈpetər ˈbɑɫkənɛndə]  ( listen)) (born 7 May 1956) is a Christian Democratic politician who has been the Prime Minister of the Netherlands since 22 July 2002, currently leading his Fourth cabinet, which is scheduled to be in office until 2011.

[edit] Early years

Jan Peter Balkenende, legally Jan Pieter Balkenende, was born on May 7 1956 in the village Biezelinge near the town Kapelle in the Netherlands. His father Jan Pieter Balkenende was a cereal grains merchant and his mother Thona Johanna Sandee was a teacher. Balkenende currently resides with his wife, Bianca Hoogendijk, and his daughter Amelia in Capelle aan den IJssel. He rents an apartment in The Hague rather than inhabit the Catshuis formal residency of the Prime Minister. He is a devout member of the Calvinist Protestant Church in the Netherlands.

[edit] Education

Balkenende went to a Protestant primary school in Kapelle. He attended secondary school at the "Christian Lyceum for Zeeland" in Goes, graduating in 1974.^[3]

After this, he studied at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, where he received an M.A., in history in 1980, an LL.M., in Dutch Law in 1982 and finally a Ph.D. in Law in 1992.^[3]

[edit] Political career

[edit] Early political career

He began his career on the staff of the research institute of the political party Christen Democratisch Appèl (CDA) and as a city councillor in Amstelveen. In that period he received his PhD with a thesis on "Administrative regulation and social organisations" (Overheidsregelgeving en maatschappelijke organisaties), a work strongly inspired by the Communitarian ideas of Amitai Etzioni^[4]. He later became an extraordinary professor of Christian-Social Thought at the Free University of Amsterdam.

Balkenende first entered the House of Representatives on 19 May 1998 while the CDA was in opposition. He became the CDA's financial spokesman and was also involved with social affairs, justice, and domestic affairs. In this role he advocated a substational reduction of the national debt and sound public finances.

He was elected Chairman of the CDA parliamentary fraction on 1 October 2001, in succession to Jaap de Hoop Scheffer. On 3 November 2001, he was appointed lijsttrekker for the CDA in the May 2002 parliamentary elections. These elections became historic when populist Pim Fortuyn was assassinated and the election campaign was halted. The result of the election restored the CDA's former position as the largest political party in the Dutch parliament.

The official residence of the prime minister

[edit] Prime Minister

Balkenende has been the Prime minister of four different cabinets.

[edit] Balkenende I

On 4 July 2002 Queen Beatrix asked Balkenende to form a new government, in the wake of the resignation of Prime Minister Wim Kok. This cabinet is known as Balkenende I. This government (including the Pim Fortuyn List (LPF) party of the murdered politician Pim Fortuyn) resigned after just 86 days in office because of infighting in the LPF which destabilised the government.

Balkenende and Silvio Berlusconi in May 2003.

Balkenende and Vladimir Putin in November 2004.

Balkenende and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in April 2008.

[edit] Balkenende II

After early elections in 2003 Balkenende formed his second government with the liberal People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) and the progressive liberal D66. Once again leader of a centre-right coalition, Balkenende's policies centred around reform of the Dutch public services, reducing crime, a tough immigration policy and historically large cuts in public spending. The measures gave rise to large public anger and bad results in opinion polls for his CDA party. While his party remained the largest Dutch delegation in the European Parliament after the European Elections, beating the general expectation of a huge loss in parliamentary seats, the party suffered strong losses during Dutch municipal elections of 2006, losing their position as the largest party in many municipalities. Despite his unpopularity among Dutch voters (polls in 2006 showed that only 26-33% of the voters had confidence in him as prime minister), his position as leader of the CDA remained stable. In the beginning of 2006, some CDA members tried to replace Balkenende as leader with minister Cees Veerman. Veerman did not accept this and offered his support to Balkenende. Balkenende's popularity recovered since then, surpassing that of his main competitor Wouter Bos in the autumn of 2006. By then, 53% preferred Balkenende as Prime Minister while 40% preferred Bos.^[5] This switch in public opinion is sometimes explained by the steady recovery of the Dutch economy during the last year of his administration, combined with declining confidence in Bos as a good alternative for the position of prime-minister.

On 1 July 2004 he took up the rotating presidency of the European Union.

[edit] Balkenende III

On 30 June 2006 D66, the smallest coalition party, withdrew its support of the government over the way immigration minister Rita Verdonk had handled the crisis around the naturalisation of Dutch MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Balkenende resigned for the second time as Prime Minister, announced early elections and presented his third government a week later. This cabinet, formed of a minority coalition of CDA and VVD, stayed in office until the elections of 22 November 2006.

Balkenende meets U.S. President George W. Bush in Washington, D.C in June 2008

[edit] Balkenende IV

Though his old coalition partners VVD and D66 fared badly during the parliamentary elections of 2006, Balkenende managed to defend the dominant position of his CDA. In needing to look for alternative coalition partners to find a new majority, he formed a social-Christian coalition with the Dutch Labour Party (PVDA) and the orthodox-Protestant ChristianUnion. This Fourth Balkenende cabinet is the current coalition cabinet of the Netherlands, formed by Balkenende, who was appointed formateur by Queen Beatrix on 9 February 2007.^[6] His cabinet was announced on 13 February, and installed on 22 February. The cabinet is scheduled to be in office until 2011. Polls conducted in late March 2009 show that Balkenende's CDA, though suffering some losses, is still the second most popular political party in the Netherlands.^[7]

[edit] Trivia

On 4 June 2005, this comparison was made by Belgian Minister of Foreign Affairs Karel De Gucht in the Flemish newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws (The Latest News). De Gucht stated that "Balkenende is a mix of Harry Potter and a petty rigid bourgeois mentality". This caused a small diplomatic controversy, and the Belgian ambassador had to apologise to Ben Bot, the Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs.^[8] Retired Deputy Prime Minister Hans Wiegel commented he preferred Harry Potter to the Manneken Pis. Also Balkenende had a close relationship with the Dutch people from Suriname and the Netherlands Antilles. He has visited several Keti Koti celebrations in recent years, July 1, Emancipation Day (end of slavery) Suriname. Slavery was abolished by the Netherlands in Suriname in 1863. During the annual celebration of Keti Koti, there is always a healthy discussion about ending the phenomenon Zwarte Piet, (an annual Blackface tradition, only celebrated in The Netherlands) since the amount of people against Zwarte Piet is steadily growing. A lot of Dutch people detest him, seeing the character as an expression of racism. In 2009 these discussions are being held in several cities during Keti Koti. Jan Peter Balkenende, is expected to take part in this discussion again in 2009. His political party the CDA thinks that respect towards one another is very important and crucial in a modern society.

Also the Zwarte Piet matter is going to be discussed on July 14, 2009 when he will be visiting U.S. President Barack Obama during the celebration of the 400 years of ties between the USA and the Netherlands. A growing number of people in other countries, especially Americans, are protesting this figure. The banning of Zwarte Piet has become one of the topics to help making a positive change in an international and respectful modern world.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Jan Peter Balkenende

• Minaz.nl - Official website of the Prime Minister

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