Caroline van der Plas
Carolina Ann Maria "Caroline" van der Plas (born 6 June 1967) is a Dutch journalist and politician. She is party leader of FarmerCitizenMovement (BoerBurgerBeweging - shortened BBB), a party focused on the interests of the rural environment in general and of the farmers in particular.
Caroline van der Plas | |
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| Member of the House of Representatives | |
| Assumed office 31 March 2021 | |
| Parliamentary group leader | |
| Assumed office 18 March 2021 | |
| Party leader (list puller) | |
| Assumed office 17 October 2020 | |
| Chairwoman | |
| Assumed office 1 November 2019 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Carolina Ann Maria 6 June 1967 Cuijk, North Brabant, Netherlands |
| Nationality | Dutch |
| Political party | FarmerCitizenMovement (BBB) (2019-) Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) (-2018) |
| Residence | Deventer, Overijssel, Netherlands |
| Website | www.parlement.com |
She started her career in journalism at the Deventer Dagblad and specialised in agricultural topics. From 2019 to 2020, she was chief editor of Pig Business magazine and pigbusiness.nl website.
She was co-founder of the FarmerCitizenMovement in 2019 and list puller in the 2021 Dutch general election. Van der Plas was the only one of her party who was elected, so she has been both parliamentary group leader and an MP since March 2021.
Van der Plas was born Cuijk and lives in Deventer. She is a widow (her husband passed away in 2019) with two sons. Her father was a well-known Deventer sports journalist and her (from Ireland originating) mother a CDA alderwoman in the same Overijssel city. She herself was also a member of the CDA party. In 2018, she gave up membership because of the lack of support for the farmer's interests in her opinion.
Her party in recent months has surged ahead in Opinion Polling; following a strong showing in the 2023 Elections.
References
House of Representatives 31 March 2021 – present | ||
| People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD – 34) |
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| Democrats 66 (D66 – 24) | ||
| Party for Freedom (PVV – 17) | ||
| Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA – 14) |
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| Socialist Party (SP – 9) |
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| Labour Party (PvdA – 9) | ||
| GroenLinks (GL – 8) |
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| Party for the Animals (PvdD – 6) |
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| Forum for Democracy (FVD – 5) |
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| Christian Union (CU – 5) | ||
| JA21 (JA21 – 3) |
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| Reformed Political Party (SGP – 3) |
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| DENK (DENK – 3) | ||
| Volt Netherlands (VOLT – 2) |
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| Farmer–Citizen Movement (BBB – 1) | ||
| BIJ1 (BIJ1 – 1) | ||
| Van Haga Group (Indep. – 3) |
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| Member Gündoğan (Indep. – 1) | ||
| Member Den Haan (Indep. – 1) | ||
| Member Omtzigt (Indep. – 1) | ||
Abc signifies the parliamentary leader (first mentioned) and the Speaker; (Abc) signifies a temporarily absent member; Abc signifies a temporary member; <Abc> signifies a member who prematurely left the House of Representatives See also: Members of the Senate of the Netherlands, 2019–2023 | ||
