Marja van Bijsterveldt

Early life

Van Bijsterveldt attended nursing school and worked in healthcare.

Politics

In 1990 she became politically active for the Christian Democratic Appeal. She was an alderwoman (member) of the Almere municipal council but left her post after the mayor of Almere's expenses were investigated. van Bijsterveldt disagreed with the way the other aldermen of the social-democratic PvdA and the liberal VVD had dealt with the matter, and following a motion of no-confidence in the VVD and the PvdA she resigned.

In 1994 she became mayor of Schipluiden and at the age of 33 years, she was the youngest mayor in Dutch history. She also was active within the CDA. first as chair of the CDJA, the CDA's youth organization and later as chair of the CDA-women's council. In November 2002 Van Bijsterveldt became party chair of the CDA. She was the first chair directly elected by the CDA membership. She beat the other candidate with 26.542 against 9.574 votes. She was re-elected for a period of four years in 2006. On 22 February 2007 Ms Van Bijsterveldt-Vliegenthart was appointed State Secretary for Education, Culture and Science in the fourth Fourth Balkenende cabinet. In August 2009 she spoke in the Dutch parliament about Laura Dekker, a thirteen-year-old Dutch citizen whose plans to circumnavigate the world solo caused international controversy. Marja van Bijsterveldt spoke against Dekker and agreed with the decision to make her a ward of court.