Paul Rosenmöller (born 11 May 1956) is a Dutch

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

presenter,

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, a ...

, and former

trade unionist A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and Employee ben ...

. Between 1989 and 2003, he was member of the Dutch

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 ...

for

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 ...

('GreenLeft') and was party leader from 1994. Since June 2019 he is 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 ...

for GroenLinks.

Biography

Rosenmöller was born in

Den Helder Den Helder () is a municipality and a city in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. Den Helder occupies the northernmost point of the North Holland peninsula. It is home to the country's main naval base. From here the Royal TESO fe ...

in 1956; his father was CEO of

Vroom & Dreesmann Vroom & Dreesmann (V&D) was a Dutch chain of department stores founded in 1887. It was declared bankrupt on 2015, although its branches were still in operation until 2016. On 2016, it was announced that takeover negotiations had not led to an a ...

. After finishing atheneum-b in

Haarlem Haarlem (; predecessor of ''Harlem'' in English) is a city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of North Holland. Haarlem is situated at the northern edge of the Randstad, one of the most populated metropoli ...

in 1974, Rosenmöller studied

sociology Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of Empirical ...

. During his study Rosenmöller became associated with radical socialist,

maoist Maoism, officially called Mao Zedong Thought by the Chinese Communist Party, is a variety of Marxism–Leninism that Mao Zedong developed to realise a socialist revolution in the agricultural, pre-industrial society of the Republic of Ch ...

groups. He stopped studying in 1978 to work in the harbour of

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...

. He worked for the shipping company Müller Thomson. In 1985 he became a member of the board of the Transportation branch of the Rotterdam FNV labour union. He negotiated with

VNO-NCW VNO-NCW (known in English as the "Confederation of Netherlands Industry and Employers") is a Dutch employers' federation founded in 1996 as a merger of the Christian-democratic ''Nederlands Christelijk Werkgeversverbond'' (NCW), which was founded as ...

and is spokesperson during several

strike Strike may refer to: People *Strike (surname) Physical confrontation or removal *Strike (attack), attack with an inanimate object or a part of the human body intended to cause harm *Airstrike, military strike by air forces on either a suspected ...

s. Rosenmöller got national fame because of his radical position in these negotiations and strikes. He was a member of

Group of Marxist-Leninists/Red Dawn A group is a number of persons or things that are located, gathered, or classed together. Groups of people * Cultural group, a group whose members share the same cultural identity * Ethnic group, a group whose members share the same ethnic iden ...

(GML) from 1976 to 1982. The GML wanted to establish a communist state in the Netherlands and sympathized with several communist regimes, such as

the People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

, the People's Socialist Republic of Albania and the

Khmer Rouge The Khmer Rouge (; ; km, ខ្មែរក្រហម, ; ) is the name that was popularly given to members of the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK) and by extension to the regime through which the CPK ruled Cambodia between 1975 and 1979. ...

from

Cambodia Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailand t ...

. Rosenmöller was criticized about 20 years later because of his past with this organisation. The human right abuses by these regimes were often cited by critics.

Member of Parliament

In 1989, he became member of the newly founded party

. GroenLinks was formed by four other parties, but Rosenmöller joined as an independent. In the 1989 election, he was the sixth on the list of the GroenLinks and the first independent; he was narrowly elected to the

. In 1993 he was candidate party leader together with Leonie Sipkes, but they lost the internal elections to Mohammed Rabbae and

Ina Brouwer Ina Brouwer (born 11 April 1950) is a Dutch retired politician of the Communist Party of the Netherlands (CPN) and later co-founder of the GroenLinks (GL) party and lawyer. Education and early career Brouwer studied Law at Groningen University ...

. After the defeat of the GroenLinks in the 1994 election, Rosenmöller became the party leader. As party leader he provided opposition against the

first First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...

and second cabinets of Wim Kok. In 2002, however, the political climate had changed. Rosenmöller participated in the opposition against the rise of

Pim Fortuyn Wilhelmus Simon Petrus Fortuijn, known as Pim Fortuyn (; 19 February 1948 – 6 May 2002), was a Dutch politician, author, civil servant, businessman, sociologist and academic who founded the party Pim Fortuyn List (Lijst Pim Fortuyn or LPF) ...

. At a party congress, he described Fortuyn's political position as "not just

right Rights are law, legal, social, or ethics, ethical principles of Liberty, freedom or entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal system, social convent ...

but

extreme right Far-right politics, also referred to as the extreme right or right-wing extremism, are political beliefs and actions further to the right of the left–right political spectrum than the standard political right, particularly in terms of being ...

". He lost the 2002 elections after the death of Fortuyn. In the hardened political climate after the murder of Fortuyn, serious threats against Rosenmöller's life and family were made. Because of this, Rosenmöller left politics. His successor as leader of the GroenLinks party was

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 basi ...

. As member of parliament, Rosenmöller showed interest in the situation of the

Netherlands Antilles nl, In vrijheid verenigd"Unified by freedom" , national_anthem = , common_languages = Dutch English Papiamento , demonym = Netherlands Antillean , capital = Willemstad , year_start = 1954 , year_end = 2010 , date_start = 15 December , ...

and social participation of

immigrants Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, and ...

Television

In 2003, after leaving politics, Rosenmöller became a TV presenter for the

IKON iKon (), stylized as iKON, is a South Korean boy band formed in 2015 by YG Entertainment, consisting of six members: Jay, Song, Bobby, DK, Ju-ne and Chan. Originally a seven-piece band, leader B.I departed from the group in June 2019. Init ...

, which was an

ecumenical Ecumenism (), also spelled oecumenism, is the concept and principle that Christians who belong to different Christian denominations should work together to develop closer relationships among their churches and promote Christian unity. The adjec ...

broadcasting organisation. He also chairs (PAVEM), a government advisory committee on the position of migrant women, in which

Princess Máxima Princess is a regal rank and the feminine equivalent of prince (from Latin ''princeps'', meaning principal citizen). Most often, the term has been used for the consort of a prince, or for the daughter of a king or prince. Princess as a subst ...

has a seat.

Personal life

Paul Rosenmöller is married and has five children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rosenmoller, Paul 1956 births Living people Dutch communists Dutch television presenters Dutch trade unionists Dutch people of German descent GroenLinks politicians Members of the House of Representatives (Netherlands) Leaders of GroenLinks People from Den Helder 20th-century Dutch politicians 21st-century Dutch politicians