Jozias van Aartsen

Jozias van Aartsen on May 18, 2001 during a visit to the USA

Jozias Johannes van Aartsen (born December 25, 1947 in The Hague ) is a Dutch politician . He was Foreign Minister of the Netherlands between 1998 and 2002 .

biography

Jozias van Aartsen, son of the politician Jan van Aartsen , studied law at the Free University of Amsterdam after graduating from high school . He then worked for the parliamentary group of the right-wing liberal People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) between 1970 and 1974 . Until 1979 he then worked as director of the Telder Foundation , the research institute of the VVD, and in this function exerted influence on discussions in his party.

Since 1979 van Aartsen held a position in the Ministry of the Interior and in 1983 became the deputy of its general secretary . From 1985 to 1994 he managed the ministry's affairs as general secretary and was also responsible for the former government computer center (RCC). In the first cabinet of Prime Minister Wim Kok , who was also chairman of the Labor Party , van Aartsen became Minister of Agriculture on August 22, 1994 and was thus also responsible for fisheries . In crisis situations such as the outbreak of swine fever, he made clear decisions despite peasant protests, and the Second Chamber decided against strong opposition, among other things, to reduce the pig population through legal regulations.

After the parliamentary elections on May 6, 1998, van Aartsen became Foreign Minister in the new edition of the so-called “violet coalition” ( swearing on August 3) and thus successor to Hans van Mierlo . The government was under pressure due to difficulties in areas such as the economy, health and immigration policy; and Koks' de facto sole decision on Dutch participation in the bombing of Yugoslavia by the NATO powers (1999) and the subsequent political dispute over the treatment of Bosnians who fled into the country also had a disturbing effect . The collaboration between Kok and van Aartsen was fraught with friction; and both politicians occasionally accused each other of going it alone diplomatically. On April 16, 2002, Kok's cabinet resigned, but remained in office on an interim basis until July 22, 2002, with Van Aartsen continuing to hold the office of Foreign Minister up to this point. His successor was Jaap de Hoop Scheffer .

In May 2003 van Aartsen was elected group chairman of the VVD. On March 8, 2006, however, he announced his resignation. The reason he gave was the disappointing election result of his party VVD, which repeatedly lost significant votes in local elections . From March 27, 2008 to March 1, 2017 he was Mayor of The Hague. From April 20, 2017 to December 1, 2017, he was acting commissioner of the King of the Province of Drenthe . From December 4, 2017 to July 11, 2018, he was acting mayor of Amsterdam .

Web links

Commons : Jozias van Aartsen  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• JJ (Jozias) van Aartsen , Parlement & Politiek

Remarks

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Jozias van Aartsen , in: Munzinger-Archiv , delivery 50/02.

predecessor	Office	successor
Wim Deetman	Mayor of The Hague 2008-2017	Pauline Krikke

predecessor	Office	successor
Eberhard van der Laan	Mayor of Amsterdam (acting) 2017-2018	Femke Halsema