Maria Cornelia Gezina "Mona" Keijzer (born 9 October 1968) is a Dutch politician and former civil servant. She served as State Secretary for Economic Affairs and Climate Policy alongside Dilan Yesilgöz-Zegerius from 26 October 2017 until 25 September 2021. A member of the

Christian Democratic Appeal The Christian Democratic Appeal ( nl, Christen-Democratisch Appèl, ; CDA) is a Christian-democratic political party in the Netherlands. It was originally formed in 1977 from a confederation of the Catholic People's Party, the Anti-Revolutionary ...

(CDA), she served in 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 2012 and 2017, and again for six months from 31 March 2021 until 27 September 2021. She focused on matters of

nursing Nursing is a profession within the health care sector focused on the care of individuals, families, and communities so they may attain, maintain, or recover optimal health and quality of life. Nurses may be differentiated from other health ...

home care Homecare (also spelled as home care) is health care or supportive care provided by a professional caregiver in the individual home where the patient or client is living, as opposed to care provided in group accommodations like clinics or nursing ho ...

and

culture Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups.Tyl ...

. Before becoming a full-time politician she worked as an

environmental A biophysical environment is a biotic and abiotic surrounding of an organism or population, and consequently includes the factors that have an influence in their survival, development, and evolution. A biophysical environment can vary in scale f ...

jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyses and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal qualification in law and often a legal practitioner. In the Uni ...

for the municipalities of

Waterland Waterland () is a municipality in the Netherlands, located in the province of North Holland. It is situated north of Amsterdam, on the western shore of the Markermeer. It is well-known for comprising the touristy towns of Broek in Waterland and M ...

and

Almere Almere () is a Planned community, planned List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of Flevoland, Netherlands, located about 20 km ...

, as well as for the province of

Gelderland Gelderland (), also known as Guelders () in English, is a province of the Netherlands, occupying the centre-east of the country. With a total area of of which is water, it is the largest province of the Netherlands by land area, and second by ...

Early life

Keijzer was born in Edam and studied juridical

public administration Public Administration (a form of governance) or Public Policy and Administration (an academic discipline) is the implementation of public policy, administration of government establishment (public governance), management of non-profit establ ...

and

public law Public law is the part of law that governs relations between legal persons and a government, between different institutions within a state, between different branches of governments, as well as relationships between persons that are of direct ...

at the

University of Amsterdam The University of Amsterdam (abbreviated as UvA, nl, Universiteit van Amsterdam) is a public research university located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The UvA is one of two large, publicly funded research universities in the city, the other being ...

Career

Keijzer started her political career as a member of 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 ...

from 1996 to 2002 and was later 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 ...

from 1998 to 2006. Subsequently, she worked as a

lawyer A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solic ...

and

mediator Mediator may refer to: *A person who engages in mediation *Business mediator, a mediator in business * Vanishing mediator, a philosophical concept * Mediator variable, in statistics Chemistry and biology *Mediator (coactivator), a multiprotein ...

in 2005 and 2006. Afterwards she was an alderwoman of neighbouring municipality of

Purmerend Purmerend () is a city and municipality in the west of the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland and in the region of West Friesland. The city is surrounded by polders, such as the Purmer, Beemster and the Wormer. The city became the tra ...

from 2007 to 2012. In 2012, Keijzer contested the CDA leadership election in an attempt to become the party's ''

lijsttrekker In politics, a lead candidate (; , ) is the leader of a political party in an election to a legislative body. In parliamentary systems, it is often the party's nominee for the position of head of government. In open list electoral systems, it is ...

'' for the 2012 general election. Although performing unexpectedly well in the elections, she let

Sybrand van Haersma Buma Sybrand van Haersma Buma (; born 30 July 1965) is a Dutch politician serving as Mayor of Leeuwarden since 2019. Until 2019, he was a member of the House of Representatives from 2002 who also served as the parliamentary leader of the Christian ...

go first. Placed second on the list of candidates, Keijzer was elected to the House of Representatives, receiving 127,446 votes. She was reelected in the 2017 general election with 165,384 votes. On 26 October 2017, Keijzer was appointed State Secretary for Economic Affairs and Climate Policy in the

third Rutte cabinet The third Rutte cabinet was the cabinet of the Netherlands from 26 October 2017 until 10 January 2022 (since 15 January 2021 demissionary). It was formed by a coalition government of the political parties People's Party for Freedom and Democracy ...

. In this capacity, she was responsible for consumer policy, small and medium-sized enterprises, telecom, post and market regulation. In a joint statement in October 2020, Keijzer and her French counterpart

Cédric O Cédric O (born 18 December 1982) is a French politician of La République En Marche! (LREM) who served as Secretary of State (junior minister) for the Digital Economy in the governments of successive Prime Ministers Édouard Philippe and Jean ...

called for a European Union authority to regulate large technology companies and argued that such an authority should be able to prevent digital platforms from blocking access to their services "unless they have an objective justification." In 2020, she again contested the CDA leadership election, but came third, after

Hugo de Jonge Hugo Mattheüs de Jonge (; born 26 September 1977) is a Dutch politician serving as Minister of Housing and Spatial Planning since 2022 in the Fourth Rutte cabinet. A member of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA), he was elected to its leade ...

and

Pieter Omtzigt Pieter Herman Omtzigt (born 8 January 1974) is an independent Dutch politician who has been a member of the House of Representatives since 2003 apart from a short interruption from 17 June to 26 October 2010. In his political work, Omtzigt focus ...

. Placed seventh on the party's candidate list for the 2021 general election, Keijzer was reelected, obtaining 18,031 votes. On 25 September 2021 Keijzer was dismissed from her cabinet position after publicly criticising the cabinet's position on

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

measures. While forced resignations are not unheard of, being removed from a cabinet position has little precedent. The last time a cabinet member was fired was in 1975, although in that instance Jan Glastra van Loon was allowed to resign. Before Keijzer's discharge, no other cabinet member had actually been fired since World War II. Media outlets reported that Keijzer refused to resign. Keijzer also resigned from the House of Representatives two days later.

Personal life

Keijzer is married to a urologist and has five sons. She lives in

Ilpendam Ilpendam is a village in the province of North Holland, Netherlands. It is a part of the municipality of Waterland, and lies about 4 km south of Purmerend. It covers an area of 2.46 km2 (0.95 sq mi) and had 1,780 inhabitants in 2008. Ilp ...

and belongs to the

Catholic Church 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 ...

. Her father-in-law is a former alderman of Waterland for the CDA.

References

*
'Mona Keijzer Frisse stratege die hard voor de troepen uitloopt; Het Dinsdagprofiel'
''

de Volkskrant ''de Volkskrant'' (; ''The People's Paper'') is a Dutch daily morning newspaper. Founded in 1919, it has a nationwide circulation of about 250,000. Formerly a leading centre-left Catholic broadsheet, ''de Volkskrant'' today is a medium-sized c ...

'', 15 May 2012

External links

*
House of Representatives biography

Curriculum Vitae Mona Keijzer
Government of the Netherlands {{DEFAULTSORT:Keijzer, Mona 1968 births Living people 20th-century Dutch civil servants 20th-century Dutch jurists 20th-century Dutch politicians 20th-century Dutch women politicians 21st-century Dutch jurists 21st-century Dutch lawyers 21st-century Dutch politicians 21st-century Dutch women politicians Aldermen in North Holland Christian Democratic Appeal politicians Dutch Roman Catholics Dutch women jurists Dutch women lawyers Members of the House of Representatives (Netherlands) Municipal councillors in North Holland People from Edam-Volendam People from Purmerend People from Waterland State Secretaries for Economic Affairs of the Netherlands University of Amsterdam alumni Women government ministers of the Netherlands