Gideon van Meijeren

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In this Dutch name, the surname is Van Meijeren, not Meijeren.
Gideon van Meijeren
GideonvanMeijerenHeijmans.jpg
Van Meijeren (2021)
Member of the House of Representatives
Assumed office
31 March 2021
Member of the States of South Holland
Assumed office
28 March 2019[1]
Personal details
Born
Gideon Frederik Cornelis van Meijeren[2]

(1988-05-27) 27 May 1988 (age 33)
Doetinchem, Netherlands
NationalityDutch
Political partyForum for Democracy
Alma materRadboud University
OccupationCivil servant

Gideon Frederik Cornelis van Meijeren (born 27 May 1988) is a Dutch civil servant and politician, who has been representing the conservative populist party Forum for Democracy (FVD) in the House of Representatives since the 2021 general election. He also holds a seat in the States of South Holland. He previously worked as a legislative attorney for the government.

Early life and government career[]

Van Meijeren was born and raised in the Achterhoek city of Doetinchem, where he attended the secondary school Ulenhofcollege between 2000 and 2006 at havo level.[3][4] He then studied law at the Juridische Hogeschool in Tilburg, receiving his propedeuse in 2007, and followed a short officer training at the Royal Military Academy in Breda until 2008.[3] Van Meijeren worked for 3.5 years as an IT employee for the Royal Netherlands Army.[3][5]

He returned to school, studying law in the years 2011–15 at Radboud University Nijmegen, and subsequently found a job as a legislative attorney at the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations.[3][6] He filled that same position starting in 2017 at the legislative office of the House of Representatives.[3]

Forum for Democracy[]

Van Meijeren started working as a legal assistant of Forum for Democracy's House caucus in November 2018.[7] He was elected to the States of South Holland as FVD's fifth candidate in the 2019 provincial elections, and he became the party's spokesperson for climate and nitrogen in that legislative chamber.[4][8] He was also placed eighth on the party list in the European Parliament election two months later.[9] In the provincial council, Van Meijeren unsuccessfully called for a referendum about the construction of wind turbines and solar farms, saying that South Holland's plans were anti-democratic.[10] He also participated in a July 2020 Farmers Defense Force protest near the RIVM's headquarters in Bilthoven against a measure to limit reactive nitrogen emissions, which would affect farmers.[6]

Following a November 2020 article by Het Parool about extremist thoughts of members of the FVD's youth wing, five out of the seven provincial councilors in the States of South Holland left the party. Van Meijeren continued to be a member of Forum for Democracy and became the leader of the South Holland caucus.[11][12] A few months later, Elsevier Weekblad reported that Van Meijeren had replied "Hell no" in a WhatsApp group chat, after party leader Thierry Baudet had asked "Would you want your sister to come home with a nigger?"[13] Van Meijeren told that it was an inside joke in a discussion about institutional racism, saying that his ex-girlfriend is Antillean and that his sister is married to a person of color.[14]

House of Representatives[]

He joined the Forum for Democracy's board as secretary in January 2021 and was its sixth candidate in the 2021 general election.[15][16][17] During the campaign, he said that he wanted to introduce a bill prohibiting censorship by social media companies and that he wanted the mayorship to be an elected office.[18] He also told that he feared immigration, saying that it would make the Netherlands unrecognizable and that it would ruin the welfare state.[14]

He was elected with 602 preference votes, was installed on 31 March, and became FVD's spokesperson for justice, security, immigration, agriculture, nature, and the interior.[7][19][5] Van Meijeren is part of the contact group Belgium, and he is on the parliamentary Committees for Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality; for the Interior; and for Justice and Security.[3] He decided to keep his seat in the States of South Holland but stepped down as caucus leader.[1]

In the House of Representatives, Van Meijeren violated social distancing rules – in effect due to the COVID-19 pandemic – after the maiden speech of fellow member of parliament Simone Kerseboom, when he congratulated her by kissing and hugging her.[20] When the House's integrity committee received complaints about the incident, Van Meijeren stated that he did not recognize the body's authority.[21] He later told in an interview that he did not consider the Netherlands to be a democracy anymore, saying that decisions are made in back rooms and that they cannot be changed by the parliament.[22]

Personal life[]

Van Meijeren lives in The Hague.[3]

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b "G.F.C. van Meijeren". Provincie Zuid Holland (in Dutch). Retrieved 30 June 2021.
  2. ^ "Verklaring van verhoor van getuige-deskundige" [Statement of questioning of an expert witness] (PDF). BPOC 2020 (in Dutch). 15 May 2021. Retrieved 15 September 2021.
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g "Gideon van Meijeren". Tweede Kamer der Staten-Generaal. Retrieved 30 June 2021.
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b "Biografie, onderwijs en loopbaan van Gideon van Meijeren" [Biography, education, and career of Gideon van Meijeren]. Tweede Kamer der Staten-Generaal (in Dutch). Retrieved 30 June 2021.
  5. ^ Jump up to: a b "Tweede Kamer" [House of Representatives]. FVD (in Dutch). Retrieved 6 September 2021.
  6. ^ Jump up to: a b Mebius, Dion (18 March 2021). "Van Fortuyns chauffeur tot de schrijver van een opzienbarende roman: een bonte stoet getrouwen komt met Baudet de Kamer in" [From Fortuyn's chauffeur to the author of a sensational novel]. de Volkskrant (in Dutch). Retrieved 30 June 2021.
  7. ^ Jump up to: a b "Mr. G.F.C. (Gideon) van Meijeren". Parlement.com (in Dutch). Retrieved 30 June 2021.
  8. ^ "Uitslag provincie Zuid-Holland provinciale statenverkiezing 2019" [South Holland results 2019 provincial elections] (PDF). Kiesraad (in Dutch). 25 March 2019. p. 28. Retrieved 30 June 2021.
  9. ^ Joosten, Carla (27 March 2019). "De 100 van Thierry Baudet" [Thierry Baudet's 100]. Elsevier Weekblad (in Dutch). Vol. 75 no. 13. p. 10.
  10. ^ Belt, Jan (24 September 2020). "Plannen voor meer zonneparken en windmolens 'leugenachtig', dus wil Forum een referendum" [Plans for more solar farms and wind turbines 'mendacious', so Forum wants a referendum]. AD (in Dutch). Retrieved 30 June 2021.
  11. ^ Straatsma, Erna (5 December 2020). "Groot deel Statenfractie Forum Zuid-Holland gaat zonder Thierry Baudet verder; twee leden blijven partijleider trouw [update]" [Large part provincial caucus South Holland Forum continues without Thierry Baudet; two members remain loyal to party leader [update]]. Leidsch Dagblad (in Dutch). Retrieved 30 June 2021.
  12. ^ Haggeman, Henny (23 February 2021). "Achterhoeks stemmen tijdens de verkiezingen? Deze tien Achterhoekers staan op de lijst" [Voting for someone from the Achterhoek in the election? These ten Achterhoek residents are on the party list]. de Gelderlander (in Dutch). Retrieved 30 June 2021.
  13. ^ Den Hartog, Tobias (10 February 2021). "Amper vijf weken voor de verkiezingen liggen ook Baudets discipelen onder vuur" [Barely five weeks before the elections, Baudet's followers are also under fire]. Het Parool (in Dutch). Retrieved 30 June 2021.
  14. ^ Jump up to: a b Van Meijeren, Gideon (7 March 2021). "Gideon van Meijeren (FVD): "Ik denk dat we de grote verrassing worden"" [Gideon van Meijeren (FVD): "I think we will be the big surprise"]. Den Haag FM (Interview) (in Dutch). Retrieved 30 June 2021.
  15. ^ "Partijbestuur" [Party board]. FVD (in Dutch). Retrieved 30 June 2021.
  16. ^ "Nevenactiviteiten van Gideon van Meijeren" [Secondary activities of Gideon van Meijeren]. Tweede Kamer der Staten-Generaal (in Dutch). Retrieved 30 June 2021.
  17. ^ Korteweg, Ariejan (27 December 2020). "Baudet handhaaft Freek Jansen op Kamerlijst vol hardliners" [Baudet keeps Freek Jansen on party list filled with hardliners]. de Volkskrant (in Dutch). Retrieved 30 June 2021.
  18. ^ Van Meijeren, Gideon (13 March 2021). "Gideon van Meijeren, FvD: 'Ik wil iets doen tegen de censuur op sociale media'" [Gideon van Meijeren, FVD: 'I want to do something to stop censorship on social media']. DHC (Interview) (in Dutch). Interviewed by Jeroen van Raalte. Retrieved 30 June 2021.
  19. ^ "Uitslag Tweede Kamerverkiezing 17 maart 2021 Proces-verbaal" [Results general election 17 March 2021 Report] (PDF). Kiesraad (in Dutch). 29 March 2021. p. 238. Retrieved 30 June 2021.
  20. ^ Boonman, Vera (19 May 2021). "Zoenende Kamerleden ondanks nadruk op coronaregels in Tweede Kamer" [Kissing MPs despite emphasis on corona rules in House of Representatives]. NRC (in Dutch). Retrieved 14 June 2021.
  21. ^ Sondermeijer, Vincent (11 August 2021). "FVD'ers weigeren voor integriteitscommissie Kamer te verschijnen" [FVD members refuse to appear before the House's integrity committee]. NRC (in Dutch). Retrieved 6 September 2021.
  22. ^ "Nederland is géén democratie – Erik van der Horst met Gideon van Meijeren" [The Netherlands is no democracy – Erik van der Horst with Gideon van Meijeren]. Café Weltschmerz (in Dutch). 31 July 2021. Retrieved 6 September 2021.
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