Attje Harma Kuiken (; born 27 October 1977) is a Dutch politician and former civil servant serving as the leader of the Labour Party in the House of Representatives since 22 April 2022. She has been a parliamentarian since 30 November 2006 with a brief interruption in 2010.

Early life and education

Attje Harma Kuiken was born on 27 October 1977 in

Groningen Groningen (; gos, Grunn or ) is the capital city and main municipality of Groningen province in the Netherlands. The ''capital of the north'', Groningen is the largest place as well as the economic and cultural centre of the northern part of t ...

.Drs. A.H. (Attje) Kuiken
(in Dutch), ''Parlement & Politiek''. Retrieved 2 February 2017. She grew up in

Hoogezand-Sappemeer Hoogezand-Sappemeer () is a former municipality in the Northeastern Netherlands. It was the third most-populous municipality in the province of Groningen, after Groningen and Oldambt. It was formed in 1949 by the merger of the former municipaliti ...

and from the age of ten in

Ferwert Ferwert ( nl, Ferwerd) is a village in Noardeast-Fryslân in the province of Friesland, the Netherlands. It had a population of around 1787 in January 2017. Before 2019, the village was part of the Ferwerderadiel municipality. History The villag ...

. She did the vwo program at the Dockinga College, a high school in Dokkum, from 1990 to 1996.Biografie, onderwijs en loopbaan van Attje Kuiken
(in Dutch), House of Representatives. Retrieved 3 February 2017. Kuiken studied public administration at the NHL University of Applied Sciences in Leeuwarden from 1996 to 1999 and organization science at the Tilburg University from 2000 to 2006. During her second studies, she lived in

Breda Breda () is a city and municipality in the southern part of the Netherlands, located in the province of North Brabant. The name derived from ''brede Aa'' ('wide Aa' or 'broad Aa') and refers to the confluence of the rivers Mark and Aa. Breda has ...

Politics

Kuiken has been a member of the Labour Party since 2002. She founded a local chapter of the Young Socialists, the youth organisation of the Labour Party, in Breda. She was a member of the House of Representatives from 30 November 2006 until 19 January 2010. She then went on maternity leave and was temporarily replaced by

Saskia Laaper Saskia is a Germanic feminine given name. There are at least two different sources of the name. One is of North German and Northeast Netherlands origin, where it originally meant "a Saxon woman" ( metathesis of "Saxia"). Notable people with the nam ...

. Kuiken has been a member of the House of Representatives again since 11 May 2010. After fellow Labour member

Martijn van Dam Martinus Hendricus Petrus "Martijn" van Dam (born 1 February 1978) is a Dutch engineer and politician. A member of the Labour Party (PvdA), he served as State Secretary for Economic Affairs from 3 November 2015 until 1 September 2017 in the Sec ...

was appointed State Secretary for Economic Affairs in November 2015, Kuiken was elected vice parliamentary group leader. After the resignation of

Diederik Samsom Diederik Maarten Samsom (; born 10 July 1971) is a Dutch environmentalist and retired politician who served the Labour Party (''Partij van de Arbeid'' PvdA) from 2012 to 2016. He was the first leader in the 70-year history of the PvdA to have b ...

as parliamentary leader on 12 December 2016, Kuiken succeeded him. After the resignation of

Lilianne Ploumen Elisabeth Maria Josepha "Lilianne" Ploumen (; born 12 July 1962) is a Dutch politician and activist who served as Leader of the Labour Party from January 2021 until April 2022. She had been a member of the House of Representatives since 2017, a ...

, she again was elected parliamentary leader on 22 April 2022.

References

External links

*
Attje Kuiken
at the House of Representatives website *
Attje Kuiken
at the Labour Party website {{DEFAULTSORT:Kuiken, Attje 1977 births Living people 21st-century Dutch civil servants 21st-century Dutch politicians 21st-century Dutch women politicians Labour Party (Netherlands) politicians Members of the House of Representatives (Netherlands) Politicians from Groningen (city) Tilburg University alumni 20th-century Dutch women