Johanna Jantina "Hanneke" van der Werf (; born 29 November 1984) is a Dutch politician of the

Democrats 66 Democrats 66 (; abbreviated D66, ) is a Social liberalism, social liberal List of political parties in the Netherlands, political party in the Netherlands, which positions itself in the Centrism, centre of the Left–right political spectrum, p ...

(D66). She has been a member of the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

since the 2021 general election. She previously held a seat in the

municipal council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural counci ...

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...

(2014–2021) and worked for the D66 caucus in the House of Representatives (2010–2018).

Early life and career

Van der Werf was born in

Hengelo Hengelo (; Tweants: ) is a city in the eastern part of the Netherlands, in the province of Overijssel. The city lies along the motorways A1/E30 and A35 and it has a station for the international Amsterdam – Hannover – Berlin service. Popu ...

Overijssel Overijssel (, ; nds, Oaveriessel ; german: Oberyssel) is a Provinces of the Netherlands, province of the Netherlands located in the eastern part of the country. The province's name translates to "across the IJssel", from the perspective of the ...

. She lived in nearby

Haaksbergen Haaksbergen () is a municipality and a town in the eastern Netherlands, in the province of Overijssel, in the Twente region. The ''Buurserbeek'' flows through the municipality of Haaksbergen. Population centres Topography ''Dutch Topograph ...

until she was two years old, when her family moved to the village of

Rekken Rekken is a village in the Netherlands, Dutch municipality of Berkelland. It lies in the most northeast corner of the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of Gelderland, about half a mile from the Germany, German border. The river Berkel enters ...

. She attended

secondary school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' secondary education, lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) ...

Het Assink in Haaksbergen and subsequently studied

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...

and

journalism Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree. The word, a noun, applies to the occupation (profes ...

at the

University of Groningen The University of Groningen (abbreviated as UG; nl, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, abbreviated as RUG) is a Public university#Continental Europe, public research university of more than 30,000 students in the city of Groningen (city), Groningen in ...

. From 2008 to 2009, Van der Werf worked as an editor of ''Den Haag Vandaag'' at the political news department of NOS, after which she worked as a personal assistant to a member of parliament. Between 2010 and 2018, she worked as a

press officer A press secretary or press officer is a senior advisor who provides advice on how to deal with the news media and, using news management techniques, helps their employer to maintain a positive public image and avoid negative media coverage. Duti ...

for the D66 caucus in the House of Representatives. She had joined the party in the former year.

Municipal councillor

Van der Werf ran as a candidate in the 2014 municipal election in

, appearing seventh on D66's

party list An electoral list is a grouping of candidates for election, usually found in proportional or mixed electoral systems, but also in some plurality electoral systems. An electoral list can be registered by a political party (a party list) or can ...

. She did not win a seat, as two candidates lower on the list were elected with preferential votes. She received a temporary seat in April 2014, when one of D66's council members went on sick leave. Her membership became permanent in June 2014, when another councillor left to become an

alderwoman An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council member chosen by the elected members th ...

. She was voted chair of the

presidium A presidium or praesidium is a council of executive officers in some political assemblies that collectively administers its business, either alongside an individual president or in place of one. Communist states In Communist states the presidi ...

three years later. In 2017, the

municipal executive In the Netherlands, the municipal executive (, ) is the executive board of a municipality. It plays a central role in municipal politics in the Netherlands, similar to the communal college in Belgium. It consists of the mayor and the members of t ...

approved a bill she had presented that introduced a six-and-a-half-week paid

paternity leave Parental leave, or family leave, is an employee benefit available in almost all countries. The term "parental leave" may include maternity, paternity, and adoption leave; or may be used distinctively from "maternity leave" and "paternity l ...

for civil servants. Before, fathers could only take a thirteen-week half-paid parental leave. Van der Werf was re-elected in 2018 as the second candidate on the party list. Her specialization within her party was security and integration. She succeeded Robert van Asten as D66 caucus leader in The Hague in June 2018, when Van Asten became an alderman in the new executive. In September 2018, Van der Werf stopped working for the D66 caucus in the House of Representatives to take a job at financial services company Aegon as a spokesperson for mortgages, damage and innovation. As council member, she wanted The Hague to apply for a pilot to test the legal cultivation and distribution of

cannabis ''Cannabis'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the family Cannabaceae. The number of species within the genus is disputed. Three species may be recognized: ''Cannabis sativa'', '' C. indica'', and '' C. ruderalis''. Alternatively ...

, but it was not supported by enough parties. She also called for the municipality to do more to prevent

female circumcision Female genital mutilation (FGM), also known as female genital cutting, female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) and female circumcision, is the ritual cutting or removal of some or all of the external female genitalia. The practice is found ...

s. In 2019, the council passed a proposal by Van der Werf to investigate businesses for criminal activities in specific areas. The approach had already been tried in Amsterdam.

House of Representatives

In 2020, it was announced that Van der Werf would run in the 2021 general election. She was the ninth candidate on the party list, six places below her initial third place on the draft version of the list. She was elected, receiving 13,935 preferential votes, and was sworn into the House of Representatives on 31 March. Van der Werf vacated her seat in The Hague council in April. In the House, her specializations are security, terrorism, and sex crimes (formerly also drugs,

asylum Asylum may refer to: Types of asylum * Asylum (antiquity), places of refuge in ancient Greece and Rome * Benevolent Asylum, a 19th-century Australian institution for housing the destitute * Cities of Refuge, places of refuge in ancient Judea * ...

, prostitution, human trafficking, and migration), and she is on the Committees for Digital Affairs, for the Interior, and for Justice and Security as well as on Europol's Joint Parliamentary Scrutiny Group. In November 2021, she pled for a central point to aid victims of sexual violence and child abuse. A

motion In physics, motion is the phenomenon in which an object changes its position with respect to time. Motion is mathematically described in terms of displacement, distance, velocity, acceleration, speed and frame of reference to an observer and mea ...

led to an investigation into establishing such a point. Van der Werf was appointed national campaign leader of D66 in May 2022 ahead of the 2023 provincial elections.

Personal life

While a member of the House of Representatives, Van der Werf moved from The Hague to

Voorburg Voorburg is a town and former municipality in the west part of the province of South Holland, Netherlands. Together with Leidschendam and Stompwijk, it makes up the municipality Leidschendam-Voorburg. It has a population of about 39,000 people ...

. She married in 2022 in Rekken, five and a half years after the start of the relationship, and her husband is part of a band called Weekend Warriors. Their daughter was born in 2020.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Werf, Hanneke van der 1984 births 21st-century Dutch politicians 21st-century Dutch women politicians Democrats 66 politicians Dutch campaign managers Living people Members of the House of Representatives (Netherlands) Municipal councillors of The Hague Political staffers University of Groningen alumni Political spokespersons