Elisabeth Marij (Lisa) Westerveld (born 16 November 1981) is a Dutch politician serving as a member of

GroenLinks GroenLinks (, ) is a green political party in the Netherlands. It was formed on 1 March 1989 from the merger of four left-wing parties: the Communist Party of the Netherlands, the Pacifist Socialist Party, the Political Party of Radicals and t ...

in the

House of Representatives of the Netherlands The House of Representatives (, pronounced ; commonly referred to as the ', literally "Second Chamber of the States General") is the lower house of the bicameral parliament of the Netherlands, the States General, the other one being the Senate. ...

since 2017. Between 2014 and 2017 she was a member of the municipality council of

Nijmegen Nijmegen (;; Spanish and it, Nimega. Nijmeegs: ''Nimwèège'' ) is the largest city in the Dutch province of Gelderland and tenth largest of the Netherlands as a whole, located on the Waal river close to the German border. It is about 6 ...

Early life and career

Westerveld was born and raised in

Aalten Aalten () is a municipality and a town in the eastern Netherlands. The former municipalities of Bredevoort (1818) and Dinxperlo (2005) have been merged with Aalten. Notable inhabitants of Aalten include Angus Young, guitarist of the Australian ro ...

. She is from a family that were loyal voters of the Christian Union. She attended Christelijk College Schaersvoorde when she was a teenager. She moved to Nijmegen for university, where she studied philosophy at the

Radboud University Nijmegen Radboud University (abbreviated as RU, nl, Radboud Universiteit , formerly ''Katholieke Universiteit Nijmegen'') is a public research university located in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. The university bears the name of Saint Radboud, a 9th century D ...

. From 2007 until 2009 she was chairwoman of the National Student Union (LSVb). In 2010 she graduated with a master's degree in political philosophy. After completing her studies she started to work as a spokesperson and political lobbyist for the General Education Union.

Politics

She was first a member of the SP. She became a member of Groenlinks after she stopped at the National student union in 2009. For the

2012 Dutch general election Early general elections were held in the Netherlands on 12 September 2012 after Prime Minister Mark Rutte handed in his government's resignation to Queen Beatrix on 23 April. The 150 seats of the House of Representatives of the Netherlands were ...

she was placed 22nd on the

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 ...

and therefore wasn't able to get elected as Groenlinks only obtained four seats. In 2014 she got elected into the municipality council of Nijmegen, where she was placed second on the party list. She got the most votes of women candidates in Nijmegen in that election. In 2017 Groenlinks won 14 seats in the House of Representatives. Westerveld was placed 14th on the party list which would initially be enough to be get a seat, but because an candidate placed 19th on the party list was elected with enough preference votes she almost lost the seat. Westerveld garnered 18.000 preference votes which was eventually enough to get a seat in the House of Representatives. In 2021 she was reelected based on preferences votes again. Groenlinks won 8 seats but Westerveld was placed 10th on the party list, she got 33,172 preference votes was passed the threshold to get a seat.

Electoral history

References

{{Members of the House of Representatives of the Netherlands, 2021–present 1981 births Living people 21st-century Dutch politicians 21st-century Dutch women politicians GroenLinks politicians Members of the House of Representatives (Netherlands) 20th-century Dutch women