Windeld (Wien) van den Brink (31 May 1945 – 10 January 2010) was a Dutch politician, farmer and union leader. From 2002 to 2006, he was a member of 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 ...

for the

Lijst Pim Fortuyn The Pim Fortuyn List ( nl, Lijst Pim Fortuyn, LPF) was a political party in the Netherlands named after its eponymous founder Pim Fortuyn, a former university professor and political columnist. The party was considered populist, right-wing popul ...

. Before entering politics, van den Brink was a farmer and chairman of a farmer's union. In 2002, he joined the

Livable Netherlands Livable Netherlands ( nl, Leefbaar Nederland, LN) was a Dutch political party. Pim Fortuyn began his political career in the party. History Historically there have always been parties in States Provincial (provincial legislatures) and municipa ...

party and was due to stand as a candidate for LN in the

2002 Dutch general election General elections were held in the Netherlands on 15 May 2002.Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) ''Elections in Europe: A data handbook'', p1396 The elections were amongst the most dramatic in Dutch history, not just in terms of the electoral ...

, however he switched his affiliation to the

Pim Fortuyn List The Pim Fortuyn List ( nl, Lijst Pim Fortuyn, LPF) was a political party in the Netherlands named after its eponymous founder Pim Fortuyn, a former university professor and political columnist. The party was considered populist, right-wing popu ...

after

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) ...

himself was sacked as party leader of the LN. Van den Brink was subsequently elected to parliament for the LPF. When the rest of the LPF parliamentary faction declared itself independent from the party, van den Brink remained attached to the LPF. He retired from the House of Representatives before the 2006 election. In the Dutch municipal elections of 2006, van den Brink was elected alderman and deputy mayor in

Putten Putten () is a municipality and town in the province of Gelderland, Netherlands. It had a population of in . It is located in the coastal area of the old Zuiderzee (Southern Sea). To the east of Putten lies the Veluwe, the biggest national par ...

as an independent candidate and held the position in coalition with 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-Revolution ...

and the Reformed Political Party but resigned from the position a year later. Unusually, van den Brink had a chance encounter with Pim Fortuyn's killer

Volkert van der Graaf Volkert van der Graaf (born 9 July 1969) is a Dutch convicted murderer who assassinated politician Pim Fortuyn, the leader of the Pim Fortuyn List (LPF) party, on 6 May 2002. Van der Graaf shot Fortuyn outside a radio studio in Hilversum shortly ...

before Fortuyn's assassination in May 2002, as van der Graaf had protested against an expansion of van den Brink's farm in Putten. When the identity of Fortuyn's murderer was publicly revealed, van den Brink referred to van der Graaf as a "fundamentalist" and a "bastard."''Vriend en vijand kennen milieuradicaal Van der G. als man met hekel aan compromissen'', De Telegraaf, 22 maart 2003.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brink, Wien van den Members of the House of Representatives (Netherlands) Pim Fortuyn List politicians 1945 births People from Putten 21st-century Dutch politicians Dutch trade unionists 2010 deaths