Romke Harke de Jong (born 5 April 1984) is a Dutch entrepreneur and politician of the social liberal party

Democrats 66 Democrats 66 (; abbreviated D66, ) is a Social liberalism, social liberal List of political parties in the Netherlands, political party in the Netherlands, which positions itself in the Centrism, centre of the Left–right political spectrum, p ...

(D66). He took over and expanded his father's ice cream catering company and served on 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 ...

of Opsterland in

Friesland Friesland (, ; official fry, Fryslân ), historically and traditionally known as Frisia, is a province of the Netherlands located in the country's northern part. It is situated west of Groningen, northwest of Drenthe and Overijssel, north of ...

between 2010 and 2018. De Jong became a member of the States of Friesland the following year, and he was elected to the House of Representatives in the 2021 general election.

Early life and non-political career

De Jong was born in 1984 in the

city of Heerenveen and grew up in the nearby town of

Gorredijk Gorredijk ( fry, De Gordyk) is the largest town in the municipality of Opsterland, in the Dutch province of Friesland. Gorredijk had a population of 7,360 in 2019. The hamlets of Easterein and Kortezwaag are also part of the town. The latter was ...

. His father was the owner of a restaurant and a

ice cream catering company, founded by Romke's grandfather in 1947, called De Jong's IJs. His father also served as an Opsterland municipal councilor and

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 ...

for D66 in the 1990s. De Jong started working for De Jong's IJs in his teenage years, and he studied commercial economics at the Hanze University of Applied Sciences in

Groningen Groningen (; gos, Grunn or ) is the capital city and main municipality of Groningen province in the Netherlands. The ''capital of the north'', Groningen is the largest place as well as the economic and cultural centre of the northern part of t ...

. In 2006, while studying, he became co-owner of De Jong's IJs. De Jong and his father expanded their company by constructing a larger factory and by starting a

franchise chain Franchising is based on a marketing concept which can be adopted by an organization as a strategy for business expansion. Where implemented, a franchisor licenses some or all of its know-how, procedures, intellectual property, use of its busine ...

of ice cream and chocolate shops under the name Lilly's. Several locations were opened in 2009, most of them located in the northern provinces of the Netherlands. A Lilly's store on the Caribbean island

Bonaire Bonaire (; , ; pap, Boneiru, , almost pronounced ) is a Dutch island in the Leeward Antilles in the Caribbean Sea. Its capital is the port of Kralendijk, on the west ( leeward) coast of the island. Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao form the ABC i ...

was opened in early 2011. The number of locations kept increasing to over ten until a spike was reached. Lilly's had six stores left in 2016, while the production capacity of De Jong's IJs was being raised. De Jong also invested to make his factory

carbon neutral Carbon neutrality is a state of net-zero carbon dioxide emissions. This can be achieved by balancing emissions of carbon dioxide with its removal (often through carbon offsetting) or by eliminating emissions from society (the transition to the "p ...

. His father temporarily took over as

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

when he became an MP in 2021.

Politics

Local and provincial

De Jong was a member of Young Democrats,

's independent youth wing, after a short period at the Labour Party. He ran for Opsterland municipal councilor in the 2006 municipal elections as the third candidate of the new local party Opsterlanders, which had come into existence due to a merger of Opsterland Anders and the local chapters of D66 and GroenLinks. De Jong did not become a council member, as Opsterlanders won one seat. D66 left the partnership Opsterlanders in the run-up to the 2010 municipal election in Opsterland. De Jong was D66's

lead candidate 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 ...

and was elected to the municipal council. He was re-elected in 2014 as D66's lead candidate, and he was again the only member of his party in the municipal council. D66 became part of the

governing coalition A coalition government is a form of government in which political parties cooperate to form a government. The usual reason for such an arrangement is that no single party has achieved an absolute majority after an election, an atypical outcome in ...

in Opsterland but left after the party had lost faith in an alderman in March 2016. De Jong gave up his seat in the municipal council in December 2017 to focus on his business. He re-entered politics in the 2019 provincial election in

, when he was elected to the

Provincial Council of Friesland The Provincial Council of Friesland ( nl, Provinciale Staten van Friesland) is the provincial council for the Dutch province of Friesland, first introduced under the Constitution of the Netherlands in 1814. It forms the legislative body of the prov ...

as D66's lead candidate. De Jong campaigned on constructing the Lelylijn, a proposed railway between

Lelystad Lelystad () is a municipality and a city in the centre of the Netherlands, and it is the capital of the province of Flevoland. The city, built on reclaimed land, was founded in 1967 and was named after Cornelis Lely, who engineered the Afsluitdi ...

and

. In the States Provincial, he introduced a bill to reduce regulations on

wind turbine A wind turbine is a device that converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. Hundreds of thousands of large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, now generate over 650 gigawatts of power, with 60 GW added each year. ...

construction by local communities, but it did not receive a majority.

House of Representatives

In the 2021 general election, De Jong was D66's 24th candidate. During the campaign, he said that he wanted the Netherlands to become a frontrunner in achieving a

circular economy A circular economy (also referred to as circularity and CE) is a model of production and consumption, which involves sharing, leasing, reusing, repairing, refurbishing and recycling existing materials and products as long as possible. CE aims ...

and that he wanted the government to financially support that transition. De Jong was elected with 2,280

preference votes In psychology, economics and philosophy, preference is a technical term usually used in relation to choosing between alternatives. For example, someone prefers A over B if they would rather choose A than B. Preferences are central to decision the ...

and was sworn into the House of Representatives on 31 March. He vacated his seat in the Provincial Council of Friesland the following month, and he also left his ice cream company. In the House, De Jong is D66's spokesperson for economic affairs,

SMEs Superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES) systems store energy in the magnetic field created by the flow of direct current in a Superconductivity, superconducting coil which has been Cryogenics, cryogenically cooled to a temperature below ...

, tourism, innovation, space travel, declining regions, competition, taxes, customs, state benefits, and

state ownership State ownership, also called government ownership and public ownership, is the ownership of an industry, asset, or enterprise by the state or a public body representing a community, as opposed to an individual or private party. Public ownershi ...

, and he is on the following committees: * Committee for Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality * Committee for Digital Affairs * Committee for Economic Affairs and Climate Policy * Committee for Finance * Committee for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation * Committee for Infrastructure and Water Management * Public Expenditure Committee In 2022, in order to increase the tax burden on wealthy individuals, he called for a hike in the tax rate for income from substantial interests in companies, which is referred to as in the Dutch tax system. He also proposed for the government to stand as a guarantor for loans intended to make small and medium-sized enterprises more sustainable in order to make it easier to obtain such loans at banks. He advised to appropriate €50 million to €100 million for this purpose. To address personnel shortages in multiple sectors, De Jong was in favor of welcoming more foreign workers to the Netherlands; D66 was the only major party supportive of plans by the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body o ...

to ease entry requirements for workers from Egypt, Tunisia, and Morocco. As part of the

Dutch farmers' protests The Dutch farmers' protests ( nl, boerenprotesten) are a series of demonstrations by Dutch livestock farmers, characterised by the use of tractors to block roads, and occupy public spaces. The protests were initially triggered in October 2019 by ...

, demonstrators blocked the entryways of De Jong's ice cream factory for the entirety of 2 July 2022 using tractors to prevent deliveries from coming through. Politicians of D66 had earlier proposed to halve the Netherlands' livestock in order to protect nature reserves from

reactive nitrogen Reactive nitrogen ("Nr"), also known as fixed nitrogen, refers to all forms of nitrogen present in the environment except for molecular nitrogen (). While nitrogen is an essential element for life on Earth, molecular nitrogen is comparatively un ...

emissions and in order to allow for the construction of homes and infrastructure following a verdict by the Council of State that those emissions had to be lowered. De Jong refused to comply with the demand of the farmers to have a discussion, saying he only has conversations when there is decency and mutual respect.

Personal life

De Jong lives in the Friesland town of

, where he has lived his entire life except for when he studied in Groningen. He has a wife called Wendel and three sons, the last of whom was born in March 2021.

References

External links

Personal website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jong, Romke de 1984 births 21st-century Dutch businesspeople 21st-century Dutch politicians Democrats 66 politicians Dutch chief executives in the food industry Living people Members of the House of Representatives (Netherlands) Members of the Provincial Council of Friesland Municipal councillors in Friesland People from Opsterland