Henk Otten (born 30 May 1967) is a Dutch politician and economist. He has been a member of the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

since June 2019. He was the co-founder of the party

Forum for Democracy Forum for Democracy ( nl, Forum voor Democratie, FvD) is a right-wing populist Eurosceptic political party in the Netherlands that was founded as a think tank by Thierry Baudet and Henk Otten in 2016. The party first participated in elections i ...

(FvD) along with

Thierry Baudet Thierry Henri Philippe Baudet (; born 28 January 1983) is a Dutch far-right politician, author and self-declared conspiracy theorist. He is the founder and leader of Forum for Democracy (FvD), and has been a member of the House of Representativ ...

. He served as FvD treasurer from 2016 to 2019. Otten was also chairman of the permanent Senate Committee on Finance. He held that position on behalf of the FvD faction until 28 July 2019; since then he has formed his own faction in the Senate which he registered as a political party called

Group Otten The Otten Group ( nl, Groep Otten, GO) is a political party in the Netherlands. It was formed following an internal conflict between Henk Otten, former treasurer and board member of Forum for Democracy (FvD), and its leader Thierry Baudet. The part ...

Biography

Otten grew up on his parents' farm. He studied economics and law 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 ...

before going to work for

Rabobank Rabobank (; full name: ''Coöperatieve Rabobank U.A.'') is a Dutch multinational banking and financial services company headquartered in Utrecht, Netherlands. The group comprises 89 local Dutch Rabobanks (2019), a central organisation (Raboban ...

in Hong Kong. From 1999 to 2002, he also worked for

Lehman Brothers Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. ( ) was an American global financial services firm founded in 1847. Before Bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, filing for bankruptcy in 2008, Lehman was the fourth-largest investment bank in the United States (behind Gol ...

in London.

Political career

Otten was a member of the

Pim Fortuyn List The Pim Fortuyn List ( nl, Lijst Pim Fortuyn, LPF) was a political party in the Netherlands named after its eponymous founder Pim Fortuyn, a former university professor and political columnist. The party was considered populist, right-wing popul ...

for a short time. In 2015, he founded the think-tank ''Forum for Democracy'' (FvD) together with

and others. Its main goal was campaigning in the 2016 Dutch Ukraine–European Union Association Agreement referendum and against Dutch membership of the EU. FvD later registered as a political party, after which Otten became party treasurer in the FvD's executive board and a party secretary to the two-member House of Representatives faction (

Theo Hiddema Theo Upt Hiddema (born 1 April 1944) is a Dutch lawyer, media personality and politician who served as a member of the House of Representatives from 2017 to 2020. A member of Forum for Democracy (FvD), he became a member of the Senate in 2021 foll ...

and Baudet) from 2017 to 2019.Mr.Drs. H. (Henk) Otten
parlement.com In February 2018, members of the FvD complained that Otten led the party apparatus in a dictatorial way and demanded more internal democracy. However, Baudet initially sided with Otten. In April 2019, he stood down from the party board after it was found he had transferred money from party donors to his own consultancy company without permission. Although he later returned the money at the party's request, the incident prompted Otten to resign as a board member. However, he formally remained the party's lead candidate for the 2019 elections to the Senate but

Paul Cliteur Paul Bernard Cliteur (born 6 September 1955) is a Dutch professor of jurisprudence at Leiden University, as well as a politician, philosopher, writer, publicist and columnist. He is known for his conservative perspective, his atheism, his repu ...

was appointed to take over as the FvD Senate spokesperson. Otten was subsequently elected to the Senate. Otten was formally expelled from the FvD on 24 July 2019 due to financial malpractices and for making critical statements of Baudet's leadership. He subsequently disputed some of the allegations as slander and claimed his expulsion was as a result of his criticism of what he regarded as Baudet's controversial statements on social media and aggressive leadership style (which Otten attributed to the FvD's difficulty in forming coalitions in Provincial Councils) rather than financial disputes. Otten formed his own faction in the Senate and expressed interest in forming a new political party. He held talks with

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, ...

and his

Party for the Future The Party for the Future (; ) was a short-lived political party in the Netherlands that had been active in the House of Representatives as the Krol/Van Kooten-Arissen Group (). Founded in May 2020, it had intended to participate in the 2021 ge ...

and subsequently became the party's chairman. He later registered his senate faction as a political party ''

'' and ''Party for the Future'' was merged into this. Otten was joined in his new party by fellow former FvD politicians Robert Baljeu and

Dorien Rookmaker Dorien Rookmaker (born 30 July 1964) is a Dutch politician of the More Direct Democracy (MDD) party, who has been serving as a Member of the European Parliament since 2020. Initially serving as a non-attached member, she joined the European ...

Personal life

Otten is married with two children.Mr.drs. H. Otten (Fractie-Otten)
profiel op website Eerstekamer.nl.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Otten, Henk 1967 births 21st-century Dutch politicians Forum for Democracy (Netherlands) politicians Living people Members of the Senate (Netherlands) Politicians from Amsterdam Leaders of political parties in the Netherlands Dutch eurosceptics Dutch economists Pim Fortuyn List politicians