Full Name Esther Ouwehand Name Esther Ouwehand Nationality Dutch Role Dutch Politician | Relations Married Residence Leiden, Netherlands Party Party for the Animals | |
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Born June 10, 1976 (age 47)
Katwijk, Netherlands ( 1976-06-10 ) Political party Party for the Animals (Partij voor de Dieren - PvdD) Occupation Politician, marketing manager Website (English) Party for the Animals website | ||
Education VU University Amsterdam | ||
Growing the Dutch Party for the Animals with MP Esther Ouwehand
Esther Ouwehand (born June 10, 1976 in Katwijk) is a Dutch politician and former marketing manager. She is one of the two Members of Parliament for the Party for the Animals (Partij voor de Dieren, PvdD).
Contents
- Growing the Dutch Party for the Animals with MP Esther Ouwehand
- Personal life
- Career
- Party for the Animals
- References
Personal life
Esther Ouwehand went to secondary school in Katwijk, where she finished her vwo (Dutch pre-university education). She studied "Policy, communication and organisation" (Dutch:beleid, communicatie and organisatie) at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, which she did not finish.
Ouwehand is married and currently resides in Leiden.
She was raised a Protestant but is currently an agnostic. She is a vegetarian.
Dutch webzine Lords of Metal conducted an interview with Esther Ouwehand in which she told about her deep rooted passion for hard rock and heavy metal music, in particular stoner metal.
Career
Initially, she did not consider a career in politics. She left a promising career in marketing, being junior marketing manager for youth magazines at Sanoma. She has additional functions as a committee member for youth centre "De Schuit" and the foundation "Factor Welzijn" in Katwijk.
Party for the Animals
She joined the Party for the Animals in October 2002 and became the party's co-ordinator in 2004. She was responsible for the management of the party's headquarters. She also co-authored the 2006 electoral program "220x liever..".
The general elections of 2006 were considered a great success for the party. The party gained 179,988 votes (1.8%), enough for two seats in the Dutch parliament. The party became the world's first party to gain parliamentary seats with an agenda focused primarily on animal rights.
She was second on the election list, right after party chairwoman Marianne Thieme. Consequently, she became a member of parliament, even though she received a total of 4.370 write-in votes, about a hundred less than lijstduwer Kees van Kooten, who received 4.479 votes. She was sworn in on November 30, 2006.
Contrary to her wishes she was not initially placed on the election list for the general elections of 2010, but the party members voted her on the second place, so she became re-elected.
Ouwehand temporarily resigned from the House on November 17, 2015 for health reasons and was replaced by Frank Wassenberg. She returned to the House on 18 October 2016.