Name Sybrand Haersma Spouse Marijke Geertsema | Nationality Dutch Parents Bernard van Haersma Buma Children 2 children | |
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Full Name Sybrand van Haersma Buma Office Member of the House of Representatives of the Netherlands since 2002 Profiles | ||
Sybrand van haersma buma
Sybrand van Haersma Buma ( [ˈsibrɑnt vɑn ˈɦaːrsma ˈbymɑ]); born 30 July 1965) is a Dutch politician of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA).
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He has been the Parliamentary leader of the Christian Democratic Appeal in the House of Representatives since 14 October 2010 and has been a Member of the House of Representatives since 23 May 2002. Van Haersma Buma has been the Leader of the Christian Democratic Appeal since 30 June 2012.
Early life
Sybrand van Haersma Buma descends from an old patrician family from Friesland. He is the son of Bernard van Haersma Buma (born 1932) who was the mayor of Workum (1962–1970) and of Sneek (1970–1993). His grandfather was the mayor of Stavoren. Both his father and grandfather belonged to the Christian Historical Union (CHU), that merged in 1980 with the Catholic People's Party (KVP) and the Anti Revolutionary Party (ARP) to form the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA).
Van Haersma Buma studied law at the University of Groningen (1983–1989) and followed a course at the University of Cambridge (1989–1990). After his study he was employed at the Council of State and the Ministry of the Interior.
Politics
Van Haersma Buma was the secretary of the Christian Democratic Appeal in The Hague and a member of the executive committee of the Christian Democratic Appeal in the Province of South Holland in the late 1990s. From January to June 2002 he was a member of the municipal council of Voorburg (South Holland) and since May 2002 he is a member of the Dutch House of Representatives. He became the party's spokesman on judicial affairs and is known for his law and order approach. From 2007 to 2010 he was the secretary of the Christian Democratic Appeal parliamentary group in the House of Representatives.
Although the Christian Democratic Appeal lost the elections of June 2010, Van Haersma Buma was re-elected. He supported his party chief, Maxime Verhagen, during the negotiations between the Christian Democratic Appeal and the conservative liberal People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) of Mark Rutte and the populist Party for Freedom (PVV) of Geert Wilders which eventually resulted in a minority government of the VVD and Christian Democratic Appeal with parliamentary support of the PVV. After Parliamentary leader Verhagen became deputy Prime Minister in the new government Van Haersma Buma was elected as his successor.
After the fall of the cabinet, Van Haersma Buma criticised the PVV, the party responsible for the breakup of the cabinet. Shortly afterwards he announced his candidacy for the party's leadership. On 18 May 2012 he was elected as lijsttrekker (leader) of the Christian Democratic Appeal by a majority of the Christian Democratic Appeal members. In the meantime he and the leaders of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy, ChristianUnion, Democrats 66 and GroenLinks, the so-called "Spring Agreement" (a budgetary agreement) for 2013.