Femke Merel van Kooten-Arissen (born 9 November 1983) is a Dutch politician and former member of the House of Representatives. She was first elected in the

2017 general election This national electoral calendar for 2017 lists the national/federal elections held in 2017 in all sovereign states and their dependent territories. By-elections are excluded, though national referendums are included. January *5 November ...

, in which she stood as a member of the

Party for the Animals The Party for the Animals ( nl, Partij voor de Dieren; PvdD) is a List of political parties in the Netherlands, political party in the Netherlands. Among its main goals are animal rights and animal welfare. Since 2019, the PvdD's political lead ...

(Partij voor de Dieren - PvdD). From 15 October 2018 to 4 February 2019, she was on maternity leave from Parliament. On 16 July 2019, she left the PvdD and became an independent MP. In December 2019, she joined

50Plus 50PLUS (; abbreviated 50+) is a political party in the Netherlands that advocates pensioners' interests. The party was founded in 2009 by Maurice Koopman, Alexander Münninghoff, and Jan Nagel. Henk Krol served as the party's leader from 2016 to ...

but remained an independent member of parliament. She left 50Plus in May 2020 together with its leader

Henk Krol Henricus Cornelis Maria "Henk" Krol (; born 1 April 1950) is a Dutch journalist, publisher, entrepreneur, activist and politician. He has been a member of the House of Representatives since 10 September 2014. He used to be the leader of 50PLUS, ...

, forming the Party for the Future (''Partij voor de Toekomst'' - PvdT). After about three months, in early August 2020, she left the PvdT in opposition to its merger with Group Otten (''Groep Otten'' - GO), a party formed by former members of the far right Forum for Democracy (''Forum voor Democratie'' - FVD). The merger had been arranged by Krol without her knowledge. Once again, she became an independent member of parliament, and remained so for the rest of the parliamentary term. The Party for the Future was eventually completely dissolved before the end of 2020. For the

general election A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...

in 2021, van Kooten formed her own party named

Splinter A splinter (also known as a sliver) is a fragment of a larger object, or a foreign body that penetrates or is purposely injected into a body. The foreign body must be lodged inside tissue to be considered a splinter. Splinters may cause initia ...

, and was the party's

lead candidate In politics, a lead candidate (; , ) is the leader of a political party in an election to a legislative body. In parliamentary systems, it is often the party's nominee for the position of head of government. In open list electoral systems, it is ...

(''lijsttrekker''). However, Splinter received only 30,000 votes, less than half of the 70,000 vote threshold required for a seat. As a result, she did not return to the House of Representatives.

References

1983 births Living people Dutch political consultants Dutch political party founders Dutch women activists Dutch women environmentalists Dutch women jurists Independent politicians in the Netherlands Members of the House of Representatives (Netherlands) Members of the Provincial Council of Utrecht Party for the Animals politicians People from Huizen Utrecht University alumni 21st-century Dutch jurists 21st-century Dutch women politicians 21st-century Dutch politicians {{Netherlands-politician-stub