Jan Peter Balkenende, Date of Birth, Place of Birth

    

Jan Peter Balkenende

Dutch politician

Date of Birth: 07-May-1956

Place of Birth: Biezelinge, Zeeland, Netherlands

Profession: lawyer, politician, professor, jurist, university teacher

Nationality: Kingdom of the Netherlands

Zodiac Sign: Taurus

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About Jan Peter Balkenende

  • Jan Pieter "Jan Peter" Balkenende Jr.
  • (Dutch pronunciation: ['j?n 'pe?t?r 'b?lk?n??nd?] (listen); born 7 May 1956) is a Dutch jurist and retired politician who served as Prime Minister of the Netherlands from 22 July 2002 to 14 October 2010.
  • He is a member of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA). Balkenende started his career as a legal counsel at the Academic Council of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam from 1982 until 1984, and as a researcher at the Christian Democratic Appeal think tank from 1984 until 1998.
  • He worked as a professor of Christian theology at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam from 1993 until 2002.
  • Balkenende was elected as a Member of the House of Representatives after the election of 1998, and served in the House of Representatives from 19 May 1998 until 22 July 2002.
  • After the Leader of the Christian Democratic Appeal and Parliamentary leader of the Christian Democratic Appeal in the House of Representatives Jaap de Hoop Scheffer stepped down following an internal power struggle between him and Chairman of the Christian Democratic Appeal Marnix van Rij for the leadership, De Hoop Scheffer endorsed Balkenende as his successor.
  • After De Hoop Scheffer stood down on 1 October 2001, Balkenende was chosen to succeed him en became the Leader of the Christian Democratic Appeal and Parliamentary leader in the House of Representatives and the lijsttrekker (top candidate) of the party for the election of 2002.
  • The Christian Democratic Appeal became the surprising winner of the election, gaining 14 seats and becoming the largest party, now having 43 seats in House of Representatives.
  • This success was in part owed to Balkenende's neutral attitude in the debates with Pim Fortuyn, the eponymous leader of the Pim Fortuyn List party who was assassinated days before the election on 6 May 2002.
  • The following cabinet formation resulted in a coalition agreement between the Christian Democratic Appeal, the Pim Fortuyn List (LPF) and the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), which formed the first Balkenende cabinet with Balkenende becoming Prime Minister of the Netherlands and Minister of General Affairs on 22 July 2002. However, the first Balkenende cabinet fell after only 87 days in office on 16 October 2002 following internal conflicts within the Pim Fortuyn List leadership that destabilised the coalition agreement on 16 October 2002.
  • For the election of 2003, Balkenende served again as lijsttrekker.
  • The Christian Democratic Appeal remained the largest party, gaining one seat and now totalling 44 seats in the House of Representatives.
  • The following cabinet formation resulted in a coalition agreement between the Christian Democratic Appeal, the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy and the Democrats 66 (D66), which formed the second Balkenende cabinet, with Balkenende continuing as Prime Minister and Minister of General Affairs, taking office on 27 May 2003.
  • This second cabinet fell on 30 June 2006 after the Democrats 66 retracted their support following there dissatisfaction with the way Minister for Integration and Asylum Affairs Rita Verdonk had handled the crisis around the naturalisation of Member of the House of Representatives Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Democrats 66 cabinet members resigned on 3 July 2006.
  • A caretaker government was made by the Christian Democratic Appeal and the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy that formed the third Balkenende cabinet on 7 July 2006.
  • For the election of 2006 Balkenende served again as lijsttrekker.
  • The election resulted in a small loss of three seats for the Christian Democratic Appeal, but it remained the largest party and now had 41 seats in the House of Representatives.
  • The following cabinet formation resulted in a coalition agreement between the Christian Democratic Appeal, the Labour Party (PvdA) and the Christian Union (CU), which formed the centre-left fourth Balkenende cabinet, with Balkenende continuing as Prime Minister and Minister of General Affairs, taking office on 22 February 2007.
  • The fourth Balkenende cabinet fell on 20 February 2010 after the Labour Party retracted their support following a disagreement over the extension of the ISAF mission in Afghanistan, the Labour Party cabinet members resigned on 23 February 2010.
  • The cabinet remained in office in a demissionary capacity.
  • For the election of 2010 Balkenende served as lijsttrekker for a fourth and final time.
  • The Christian Democratic Appeal suffered a large defeat in the election, losing 20 seats and falling back as the fourth party, now having 21 seats in the House of Representatives.
  • Balkenende accepted responsibility for the defeat and sequentially announced his resignation as party leader and his retirement from national politics.
  • He was succeeded as Leader by his long serving Deputy Maxime Verhagen that same day on 9 June 2010.
  • He remained Prime Minister until the first Rutte cabinet was installed on 14 October 2010. After his premiership, Balkenende retired from active politics and became a professor of Governance, Institutions and Internationalization at the Erasmus University Rotterdam on 1 December 2010, and worked as a Partner of Corporate Responsibility at Ernst & Young from 1 April 2011 until 1 July 2017.
  • Following his retirement Balkenende occupies numerous seats as a corporate director and nonprofit director for supervisory boards in the business and industry world and several international non-governmental organisations (ING Group, Goldschmeding Foundation and the Dutch Sustainable Growth Coalition).

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