João Varela (born 19 October 1974) is a Dutch journalist and former politician who served as an MP in the House of Representatives for 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 ...

(LPF) from 2002 to 2006. He was the LPF's number two candidate during the 2002 general election and was elected in first place after the assassination of the LFP's leader Pim Fortuyn.

Early life

Varela was born in

Cape Verde , national_anthem = () , official_languages = Portuguese , national_languages = Cape Verdean Creole , capital = Praia , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , demonym ...

in 1974 and was raised in a strict

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

family. At the age of six he moved to the

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with his parents. His father worked for the Van Nelle coffee company. Verela ran away from home and was subsequently fostered by a Dutch family. He was a semi-professional tennis player at a young age before studying an economics degree at Erasmus University Rotterdam and was employed as a marketing manager for L’Oreal.

Political career

Varela became close friends with Pim Fortuyn during his studies at Erasmus University in Rotterdam. He joined the newly created

in 2002 and offered his services as a parliamentary candidate. Varela was placed second on the party list for the 2002 general election at the personal recommendation of Fortuyn who also suggested that Varela would serve as minister for immigration if he was elected as Prime Minister. During the election campaign, Verela became a recognizable public face for the LPF through being a prominent ethnic minority candidate in the party. Fortuyn was assassinated in the run-up to the election but was still put forward as the posthumous number one candidate while Varela became the lead candidate by default. He was subsequently elected to the House of Representatives. In parliament, Varela focused on issues such as social affairs, youth, migration, employment, finance, law and order, and economic affairs. He also supported reducing immigration, stricter measures to assimilate migrants and defended Fortuyn's views on Islam. However, he also supported granting pardons to existing illegal immigrants. Varela was not elected at the

2006 elections The following elections occurred in the year 2006. * Elections in 2006 * Electoral calendar 2006 * 2006 Acehnese regional election * 2006 American Samoan legislative election * 2006 Bahraini parliamentary election * 2006 Costa Rican presidenti ...

when the LPF lost all of its representation in parliament and retired from politics soon after. In 2006, he was also a candidate for

alderman An alderman is a member of a Municipal government, municipal assembly or council in many Jurisdiction, jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council membe ...

and deputy mayor of the Westland municipality, however the position was allocated to LPF politician Ben van der Stee.

After politics

After leaving the House of Representatives, Varela trained and began working as an accountant. He also works as a weekly columnist for the ''Financial Telegraaf'' magazine and as an ambassador for the ''Ambition by Sport'' charity for disadvantaged youth. He also appeared as a celebrity contestant in the first season ''Sterren Dansen Op Het IJs'' the Dutch spin off of

Dancing on Ice ''Dancing on Ice'' is a British television series presented by Phillip Schofield alongside Holly Willoughby from 2006 to 2011, who then returned in 2018, and Christine Bleakley from 2012 to 2014. The series features celebrities and their profe ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Varela, João 1974 births Living people Dutch financial writers Pim Fortuyn List politicians Dutch Roman Catholics Erasmus University Rotterdam alumni 21st-century Dutch politicians Members of the House of Representatives (Netherlands) Dutch people of Cape Verdean descent Dutch columnists 21st-century Dutch journalists