Ank Bijleveld

Her Excellency

Ank Bijleveld
Her Excellency; Ank Bijleveld
	Bijleveld in 2019
Minister of Defence
	Incumbent
	Assumed office ; 26 October 2017
Prime Minister	Mark Rutte
Preceded by	Klaas Dijkhoff
King's Commissioner of Overijssel
	In office; 1 January 2011 – 26 October 2017
Monarch	Beatrix (2011–2013); Willem-Alexander (2013–2017);
Preceded by
Succeeded by
State Secretary for the Interior and Kingdom Relations
	In office; 22 February 2007 – 14 October 2010
Prime Minister	Jan Peter Balkenende
Preceded by	Rob Hessing
Succeeded by	Raymond Knops (2017)
Mayor of Hof van Twente
	In office; 1 January 2001 – 22 February 2007
Preceded by	Office established
Succeeded by	Hans Kok
Member of the House of Representatives
	In office; 17 June 2010 – 1 January 2011
	In office; 16 November 1989 – 16 January 2001
Personal details
Born	Anna Theodora Bernardina Schouten; 17 March 1962 (age 59); IJsselmuiden, Netherlands
Nationality	Dutch
Political party	Christian Democratic Appeal
Spouse(s)	Riekele Bijleveld (m. 1984)
Children	2
Residence	Goor, Netherlands
Alma mater	University of Twente (BPA, MPA)
Occupation	Politician; Civil servant;
Website	government.nl/government/members-of-cabinet/ank-bijleveld

Anna Theodora Bernardina "Ank" Bijleveld-Schouten (born 17 March 1962) is a Dutch politician of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) who has been serving as Minister of Defence in the third cabinet of Prime Minister Mark Rutte since 26 October 2017.^[1]

A civil servant by occupation, she served as a member of the House of Representatives from 16 November 1989 until 16 January 2001, when she was appointed Mayor of Hof van Twente, serving from 1 January 2001 until 22 February 2007. She resigned after she was appointed as State Secretary for the Interior and Kingdom Relations in the Fourth Balkenende cabinet, serving from 22 February 2007 until 14 October 2010. After the election of 2010, Bijleveld returned to the House of Representatives serving from 17 June 2010 until 1 January 2011 when she resigned after she was appointed as King's Commissioner of Overijssel. Following the election of 2017 Bijleveld was asked to become Minister of Defence in the Third Rutte cabinet. Bijleveld accepted and resigned as King's Commissioner of Overijssel the same day she took office as the new Minister of Defence on 26 October 2017.

Early life and education[]

Bijleveld was born in the Dutch province of Overijssel. Between 1980 and 1986, she studied public administration at the University of Twente.

Political career[]

In 1986 Bijleveld became a member of the Enschede municipal council for the Christian Democratic Appeal. She served as a Member of the House of Representatives from 16 November 1989 until 16 January 2001. She was Mayor of Hof van Twente from 1 January 2001 until 22 February 2007, when she resigned to become the State secretary for the Interior and Kingdom Relations in the Fourth Balkenende cabinet until 14 October 2010. On 17 June 2010 she again became a member of the House of Representatives. She was an MP till 1 January 2011 when she became King's Commissioner of Overijssel.^[2]

Minister of Defence, 2017–present[]

Bijleveld left that position in 2017 as she was appointed to be Minister of Defence.

Early in her tenure, Bijleveld oversaw Dutch efforts to disrupt a 2018 attempt by Russian intelligence agents to hack the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).^[3]^[4]

In October 2019, journalists from NRC and NOS revealed that an air raid on the Iraqi city Hawija in early June 2015 had been carried out by Dutch F16s. This bombing of a weapons depot resulted in 70 civilian deaths.^[5] Bijleveld's predecessor, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, was aware of this, but had incorrectly informed the House of Representatives about this.^[6] Bijleveld was criticized, because she too could have informed the House of Representatives about this earlier. For this reason GroenLinks-parliamentarian Isabelle Diks filed a motion of no confidence on 5 November 2019, which was supported by 71 parliamentarians.^[7] In this parliamentary debate Rutte and Bijleveld stated that the number of seventy civilian deaths was uncertain and that this was also not known to the United States Central Command. After inquiries from NRC and NOS, United States Central Command however confirmed that they have known this number of casualties for a while now.^[8] The fact that journalists could get this information led to a fourth debate about this bombing. In this debate, Bijleveld survived another vote of no confidence, which was supported by only 69 parliamentarians.^[9]

Personal life[]

Bijleveld is married to Riekele Bijleveld since 1984 and has two daughters. She is a Roman Catholic.

Decorations[]

Order of Orange-Nassau
- Knight (16 January 2001)

References[]

^ "Defensieminister Ank Bijleveld (CDA) kent Den Haag op haar duimpje" (in Dutch). NOS. 23 October 2017. Retrieved 7 February 2018.
^ (in Dutch) Ank Bijleveld-Schouten benoemd tot CdK Overijssel
^ Anthony Deutsch and Stephanie van den Berg (October 4, 2018), Dutch government says it disrupted Russian attempt to hack chemical weapons watchdog Reuters.
^ David Bond, Mehreen Khan and Kadhim Shubber (October 4, 2018), West hits back at Russian spying activities Financial Times.
^ Schippers, Jannie; Versteegh, Kees (18 October 2019). "De Nederlandse 'precisiebom' op een wapendepot van IS" (in Dutch). NRC. Retrieved 19 January 2021.
^ Geels, Maartje (5 November 2019). "Bijleveld biedt excuses aan na verkeerd informeren Kamer over Irak" (in Dutch). NRC. Retrieved 19 January 2021.
^ Boon, Floor; Berkhout, Karel (5 November 2019). "Bijleveld in het nauw, maar blijft overeind" (in Dutch). NRC. Retrieved 19 January 2021.
^ Schippers, Jannie; Versteegh, Kees (19 December 2019). "Kolonels VS spreken Rutte tegen: wél 70 doden Hawija" (in Dutch). NRC. Retrieved 19 January 2021.
^ Boon, Floor (14 May 2020). "'U bent toch de minister? U gaat over transparantie'". NRC (in Dutch). Retrieved 19 January 2021.

External links[]

Official

(in Dutch) Drs. A.Th.B. (Ank) Bijleveld-Schouten Parlement & Politiek

Political offices
Preceded by Office established	Mayor of Hof van Twente 2001–2007	Succeeded by Hans Kok
Preceded by Rob Hessing	State Secretary for the Interior and Kingdom Relations 2007–2010	Succeeded by Raymond Knops (2017)
Preceded by	King's Commissioner of Overijssel 2011–2017	Succeeded by
Preceded by Klaas Dijkhoff	Minister of Defence 2017–present	Incumbent

[1] "Defensieminister Ank Bijleveld (CDA) kent Den Haag op haar duimpje" (in Dutch). NOS. 23 October 2017. Retrieved 7 February 2018.

[2] (in Dutch) Ank Bijleveld-Schouten benoemd tot CdK Overijssel

[3] Anthony Deutsch and Stephanie van den Berg (October 4, 2018), Dutch government says it disrupted Russian attempt to hack chemical weapons watchdog Reuters.

[4] David Bond, Mehreen Khan and Kadhim Shubber (October 4, 2018), West hits back at Russian spying activities Financial Times.

[5] Schippers, Jannie; Versteegh, Kees (18 October 2019). "De Nederlandse 'precisiebom' op een wapendepot van IS" (in Dutch). NRC. Retrieved 19 January 2021.

[6] Geels, Maartje (5 November 2019). "Bijleveld biedt excuses aan na verkeerd informeren Kamer over Irak" (in Dutch). NRC. Retrieved 19 January 2021.

[7] Boon, Floor; Berkhout, Karel (5 November 2019). "Bijleveld in het nauw, maar blijft overeind" (in Dutch). NRC. Retrieved 19 January 2021.

[8] Schippers, Jannie; Versteegh, Kees (19 December 2019). "Kolonels VS spreken Rutte tegen: wél 70 doden Hawija" (in Dutch). NRC. Retrieved 19 January 2021.

[9] Boon, Floor (14 May 2020). "'U bent toch de minister? U gaat over transparantie'". NRC (in Dutch). Retrieved 19 January 2021.

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show v Ministers without Portfolio of the Netherlands
Cabinet of the Netherlands
Ministry of the Interior	Burger Van Schaik Teulings Albregts Van Boxtel De Graaf Pechtold Nicolaï Leers Blok Van Veldhoven Bijleveld
Ministry of Foreign Affairs	Van Verduynen Van Roijen Van Kleffens Luns
Ministry of Justice	Nawijn Verdonk Dekker
Ministry of Health	Rouvoet Bruins Van Rijn Ark
Ministry of Education	De Brauw Van Veen Trip Peijnenburg Ginjaar Slob
Ministry of Housing	Vogelaar Van der Laan Van Middelkoop
Ministry of Colonial Affairs	Soejono Götzen

show v t Members of the House of Representatives of the Netherlands (2010–2012)
House of Representatives, 17 June 2010 – 19 September 2012
People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (31)	Blok Aptroot Van Ark Azmani Van Beek Berckmoes-Duindam De Boer Bosman Ten Broeke Van der Burg De Caluwé <Dezentjé Hamming-Bluemink> Dijkhoff Elias Harbers Hennis-Plasschaert Houwers Huizing <De Krom> Leegte De Liefde Lodders Lucas Van Miltenburg Mulder Neppérus <Nicolaï> Van Nieuwenhuizen <Rutte> Schaart <Schippers> Snijder-Hazelhoff Van der Steur Straus Taverne <Teeven> <Weekers> Ziengs <Zijlstra>
Labour Party (30)	Samsom Albayrak Arib Bouwmeester Çelik <Cohen> Van Dam Van Dekken Dijksma Dijsselbloem Dikkers Eijsink Groot Hamer Heijnen Hilkens Jacobi Jadnanansing Klijnsma <> Kuiken De Lange <Leerdam> Marcouch Monasch Plasterk Recourt Smeets <Spekman> Timmermans Van der Veen Verbeet (Speaker) Vermeij Wolbert
Christian Democratic Appeal (21)	Van Haersma Buma <Atsma> <Bijleveld> <Bijsterveldt> Biskop Blanksma-van den Heuvel Van Bochove Bruins Slot Çörüz Ferrier Haverkamp Van Hijum Holtackers <De Jager> <> <Klink> Knops Koopmans Koppejan Omtzigt Ormel De Rouwe Smilde Sterk Van Toorenburg Uitslag <Verburg> <Verhagen> Van der Werf
Party for Freedom (20)	Wilders Agema Beertema Van den Besselaar Bontes Bosma Van Dijck Dille Driessen Elissen Fritsma Gerbrands Graus Helder De Jong Van Klaveren Lucassen De Mos De Roon <Sharpe> Van Vliet
Socialist Party (15)	Roemer Bashir Van Bommel Van Dijk Van Gerven Gesthuizen Irrgang Jansen <Janssen> Karabulut Kooiman Leijten Van Raak Smits Ulenbelt De Wit
Democrats 66 (10)	Pechtold Berndsen Dijkstra Hachchi Van der Ham Koolmees Koşer Kaya Schouw Van Veldhoven Verhoeven
GroenLinks (10)	Sap <Van den Berge> Braakhuis Dibi El Fassed Van Gent Grashoff <Halsema> Klaver Peters Van Tongeren Voortman
Christian Union (5)	Slob Ortega <Rouvoet> Schouten Voordewind Wiegman
Reformed Political Party (2)	Van der Staaij Dijkgraaf
Party for the Animals (2)	Thieme <Hazekamp> Ouwehand
Independents (4)	Groep Kortenoeven/Hernandez Kortenoeven Hernandez Lid-Brinkman Brinkman Lid-Van Bemmel Van Bemmel
See also: Members of the House of Representatives, 2006–2010, Members of the House of Representatives, 2012–2017, Members of the Senate, 2011–2015

show v t Demissionary Fourth Balkenende cabinet (2010)
Preceded by: Fourth Balkenende cabinet Succeeded by: First Rutte cabinet
Prime Minister	Jan Peter Balkenende (General Affairs)
Deputy Prime Minister	André Rouvoet (Education, Culture and Science and Youth and Family)
Ministers	Ernst Hirsch Ballin (Interior and Kingdom Relations and Justice) Maxime Verhagen (Foreign Affairs and Development Cooperation) Jan Kees de Jager (Finance) Maria van der Hoeven (Economic Affairs) Eimert van Middelkoop (Defence and Housing and Integration) Ab Klink (Health, Welfare and Sport) Camiel Eurlings (Transport, Public Works and Water Management) Gerda Verburg (Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality) Piet Hein Donner (Social Affairs and Employment) Tineke Huizinga (Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment)
State Secretaries	Ank Bijleveld (Interior and Kingdom Relations) Jack de Vries (Defence) Marja van Bijsterveldt (Education, Culture and Science)

show v t Fourth Balkenende cabinet (2007–2010)
Preceded by: Third Balkenende cabinet Succeeded by: Demissionary Fourth Balkenende cabinet
Prime Minister	Jan Peter Balkenende General Affairs
Deputy Prime Ministers	Wouter Bos (Finance) André Rouvoet (Youth and Family)
Ministers	Guusje ter Horst (Interior and Kingdom Relations) Maxime Verhagen (Foreign Affairs) Ernst Hirsch Ballin (Justice) Maria van der Hoeven (Economic Affairs) Eimert van Middelkoop (Defence) Ab Klink (Health, Welfare and Sport) Ronald Plasterk (Education, Culture and Science) Camiel Eurlings (Transport, Public Works and Water Management) Gerda Verburg (Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality) Piet Hein Donner (Social Affairs and Employment) Jacqueline Cramer (Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment)
Ministers without portfolio	Ella Vogelaar (Housing and Integration) (2007–2008) Eberhard van der Laan (Housing and Integration) (from 2008) Bert Koenders (Development Cooperation)
State Secretaries	Ank Bijleveld (Interior and Kingdom Relations) Frans Timmermans (Foreign Affairs) Jan Kees de Jager (Finance) Nebahat Albayrak (Justice) Frank Heemskerk (Economic Affairs) Cees van der Knaap (Defence) (2007) Jack de Vries (Defence) (from 2007) Jet Bussemaker (Health, Welfare and Sport) Marja van Bijsterveldt (Education, Culture and Science) Sharon Dijksma (Education, Culture and Science) Tineke Huizinga (Transport, Public Works and Water Management) Ahmed Aboutaleb (Social Affairs and Employment) (2007–2008) Jetta Klijnsma (Social Affairs and Employment) (from 2008)

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General	VIAF 1 WorldCat
National libraries	Netherlands

show v t Ministers of Defence of the Netherlands
Ministry of Defence
Schokking s'Jacob Staf Van den Bergh De Quay Visser De Jong Den Toom De Koster Vredeling Stemerdink Kruisinga De Koning Scholten De Geus Van Mierlo De Ruiter Van Eekelen Bukman Bolkestein Ter Beek Pronk Ter Beek Voorhoeve De Grave Korthals Kamp Van Middelkoop Hillen Hennis-Plasschaert Dijkhoff A. Bijleveld

show v State Secretaries for the Interior of the Netherlands
Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations
Schmelzer Bot Van Veen Polak Koning Van Leijenhorst Van Amelsvoort De Graaff-Nauta Kohnstamm De Vries Hessing Bijleveld Knops