Maria Bernadina (Marijke) Vos (born 4 May 1957 in

Leidschendam Leidschendam () is a town and former municipality in the province of South Holland of the Netherlands. Along with Voorburg and Stompwijk, it is part of the municipality Leidschendam-Voorburg. History The town's name has been in use for centur ...

) is a

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking ...

Career

Pre-political career

Vos's father was a judge in

's-Hertogenbosch s-Hertogenbosch (), colloquially known as Den Bosch (), is a city and municipality in the Netherlands with a population of 157,486. It is the capital of the province of North Brabant and its fourth largest by population. The city is south of th ...

. Her grandfather, A.H.J. Engels was member of parliament for the Roman-Catholic

RKSP The Roman Catholic State Party ( nl, Roomsch-Katholieke Staatspartij, RKSP) was a Catholic Christian democratic political party in the Netherlands. The party was founded in 1926 as a continuation of the General League of Roman Catholic Caucuses. ...

. After finishing gymnasium-b in

in 1975, Vos went on to study

biology Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary i ...

at the University of Wageningen, graduating in 1983. During her study she was active in the students movement, the

peace movement A peace movement is a social movement which seeks to achieve ideals, such as the ending of a particular war (or wars) or minimizing inter-human violence in a particular place or situation. They are often linked to the goal of achieving world peac ...

and the campaign against nuclear energy. In 1984 she worked as teacher and campaigner for an environmental organisation, 'Milieudefensie' ('Defense of the Environment'). In 1990 she began to teach

ecology Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overl ...

at the Centre of Ecology of the

University of Leiden Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; nl, Universiteit Leiden) is a public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. The university was founded as a Protestant university in 1575 by William, Prince of Orange, as a reward to the city of Le ...

until 1992. In 1989 she became a member of the

GreenLeft GroenLinks (, ) is a Green politics, green List of political parties in the Netherlands, political party in the Netherlands. It was formed on 1 March 1989 from the merger of four Left-wing politics, left-wing parties: the Communist Party of th ...

and almost immediately entered its temporary board, that would oversee the merger of the four parties that would form the GreenLeft. She was elected party chairperson in 1990. In 1992 this office became a paid function and she left the university.

Political career

In 1994 she stood for the GreenLeft in 1994 general elections. She was elected into 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 ...

. Between 1995 and 1996 Vos was chairperson of the parliamentary commission on climate change. In 1997 she was elected animal rights protector of the year. Since 1998 Vos has been deputy party leader. In 2003 she was interim party leader, when

Femke Halsema Femke Halsema (; born 25 April 1966) is a Dutch politician and filmmaker. On 27 June 2018, she was appointed Mayor of Amsterdam and began serving a six-year term on 12 July 2018. She is the first woman to hold the position on a non-interim bas ...

gave birth to twins. Between 2001 and 2003 she was chairperson of the parliamentary commission on fraud in the building sector. In 2003 she became a member of the board of advice of the refugee-assistance organisation 'Steunpunt Vluchteling' ('Supportpillar for Refugees'). In 2004 she announced that she would not enter in the next general election, instead she would become alderwoman in Amsterdam, if the GreenLeft enter local government there. As member of

parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...

, Vos has shown particular interest in

the environment The natural environment or natural world encompasses all living and non-living things occurring naturally, meaning in this case not artificial. The term is most often applied to the Earth or some parts of Earth. This environment encompasses t ...

animal rights Animal rights is the philosophy according to which many or all Animal consciousness, sentient animals have moral worth that is independent of their Utilitarianism, utility for humans, and that their most basic interests—such as avoiding s ...

spatial planning Spatial planning mediates between the respective claims on space of the state, market, and community. In so doing, three different mechanisms of involving stakeholders, integrating sectoral policies and promoting development projects mark the th ...

and civil liberties. Since 2004 Vos is co-owner of vineyard in southern

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

, the vineyard produces organic wine, sunflowers and grain.

Local Politics

While still in parliament, Vos played an important role in the election campaign and government formation in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

. In the March 2006 local elections Marijke Vos had a lijstduwer's position on the GreenLeft list for the

city 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 counc ...

, she was elected by a large number of preference votes. In April 2006 she was appointed alderwoman in Amsterdam in a PvdA/GreenLeft coalition. On 23 May 2006 she left parliament to devote herself to her alderman's work, she was succeeded by former GreenLeft vice-chair, Nevin Özütok.

References

*
Parlement.com biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vos, Marijke 1957 births Living people Aldermen of Amsterdam Dutch women in politics GroenLinks politicians Members of the House of Representatives (Netherlands) Members of the Senate (Netherlands) Chairmen of GroenLinks People from Leidschendam Wageningen University and Research alumni