Henricus Adrianus Josephus "Hans" Smolders (born 15 September 1960) is a Dutch politician, former professional ice hockey player and entrepreneur. He worked as a refrigeration mechanic until he sold his company in 2001. The next year, he was elected to be a member of the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entities. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often ...

for the

Pim Fortuyn List The Pim Fortuyn List (, LPF) was a political party in the Netherlands that existed from 2002 to 2008 at a national level and was named after its eponymous founder Pim Fortuyn, a former university professor and political columnist. The party was ...

(LPF). He served in this position for less than a year. Since then, Smolders has been active in local politics in his hometown of

Tilburg Tilburg () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Netherlands, in the southern Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Brabant. With a population of 22 ...

, having been a member of the municipal council for most of this period. In 2019, he was elected to the States of North Brabant for

Forum for Democracy Forum for Democracy ( ; FvD) is a far-right political party in the Netherlands, originally founded as a think tank by Thierry Baudet and Henk Otten in 2015 before registering itself as a party the following year. The FvD first participated i ...

and he returned to the House of Representatives after the 2021 general election. During his years as a refrigeration mechanic, Smolders also was a professional ice hockey player, having played multiple matches for the Dutch national ice hockey team.

Early life and career

Smolders was born on 15 September 1960 in Tilburg. His father was a

mailman A mail carrier, also referred to as a mailman, mailwoman, mailperson, postal carrier, postman, postwoman, postperson, person of post, letter carrier (in American English), or colloquially postie (in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the Unite ...

. Smolders attended

vocational school A vocational school (alternatively known as a trade school, or technical school), is a type of educational institution, which, depending on the country, may refer to either secondary education#List of tech ed skills, secondary or post-secondar ...

, and graduated in 1977. In the following five years, he received two degrees in

refrigeration Refrigeration is any of various types of cooling of a space, substance, or system to lower and/or maintain its temperature below the ambient one (while the removed heat is ejected to a place of higher temperature).IIR International Dictionary of ...

, one from a college in

's-Hertogenbosch s-Hertogenbosch (), colloquially known as Den Bosch (), is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Netherlands with a population of 160,783. It is the capital of ...

and one from a college in Ede. Alongside, Smolders worked as a refrigeration mechanic. After his education, he kept working in that field, and started his own company in 1984. Smolders sold his company, called "Smol Koeling", in 2001, causing him to declare himself financially independent. During that same time, Smolders was an ice hockey player for the Tilburg Trappers, playing a total of 341 games between 1977 and 1986. Furthermore, he was part of the Dutch junior ice hockey team and of the national ice hockey team, playing in 13 international matches for the latter team between 1978 and 1983.

Political career

National

Smolders was a candidate in the 2002 general election as a member of the

. He was the 16th person on the candidate list of that party. During the election season, he was

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) in ...

's driver. Nine days before the election, Fortuyn was

assassinated Assassination is the willful killing, by a sudden, secret, or planned attack, of a personespecially if prominent or important. It may be prompted by political, ideological, religious, financial, or military motives. Assassinations are orde ...

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 short ...

. As Fortuyn's driver, Smolders witnessed the event, and he followed the suspect afterwards until Van der Graaf was arrested by the police. After the election, he became a member of the Pim Fortuyn List in the

. He left the lower house in January 2003. He was elected to the House again in the 2021 general election on behalf of

. Shortly after his election, he left the Forum for Democracy in protest against the party releasing a poster comparing the COVID-19 lockdown measures to the

Nazi occupation of the Netherlands Despite Dutch neutrality, Nazi Germany invaded the Netherlands on 10 May 1940 as part of '' Fall Gelb'' (Case Yellow). On 15 May 1940, one day after the bombing of Rotterdam, the Dutch forces surrendered. The Dutch government and the royal f ...

. He subsequently joined the

Belang van Nederland Belang van Nederland (; ; BVNL) is a political party in the Netherlands, led by Wybren van Haga. Between 2021 and 2023, it was active in the House of Representatives (Netherlands), House of Representatives as the independent Van Haga Group (). Its ...

party.

Municipal

At the end of 2003, he founded his own local political party called the Smolders List. In April 2004, Smolders said a man showed up at his home armed with a gun, saying he should leave politics. Smolders said he would stop as party leader because of the incident. The perpetrator was never found. Smolders joined the local Tilburg Elderly Party (TOP) at the end of 2004, saying he would be active within the party and opened up the possibility of running for a seat in the Tilburg

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, borough cou ...

for that party. Smolders participated with his own party, List Smolders, in the March 2006 municipal elections. His party won 5 out of 39 seats in the Tilburg municipal council, and he became a member of the council. While he was still a member of the municipal council, Smolders appeared on the ballot during the November 2006 general election. Smolders was the 19th person on the candidate list of the party

One NL Eén NL (One NL) is a Dutch political party founded in September 2006. It took part in the 2006 Dutch election under the leadership of Marco Pastors and Joost Eerdmans, but a dismal election result leaves the political future of the party quite un ...

, which was founded a few months before the elections. However, the party did not win any seats in the House of Representatives. Smolders remained a council member in Tilburg. Smolders clashed with mayor Ruud Vreeman, who he accused of corruption and mismanagement. When Smolders was investigated for corruption (see #Legal affairs), he said the investigation was started by Vreeman as an excuse for mistakes Vreeman had made regarding the renovation of a local theater. Vreeman resigned because of the scandal surrounding the Midi Theater in October 2009 after a

censure motion A censure is an expression of strong disapproval or harsh criticism. In parliamentary procedure, it is a debatable main motion that could be adopted by a majority vote. Among the forms that it can take are a stern rebuke by a legislature, a spir ...

by the municipal council. When the next municipal elections took place in

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

, Smolders decided his party would not participate. He stated this was for health reasons. Smolders re-entered politics in 2014, when he participated again with his party List Smolders in the

municipal elections In many parts of the world, local elections take place to select office-holders in local government, such as mayors and councillors. Elections to positions within a city or town are often known as "municipal elections". Their form and conduct var ...

. He said it was his duty as a citizen to stop mismanagement. His party won five out of the 45 seats in the Tilburg municipal council, causing Smolders to become a member of the council once more. In 2017, Smolders was chosen "politician of the year" by the readers of the local news website ''Tilburgers.nl''. During the next elections in 2018, his party received a

plurality Plurality may refer to: Law and politics * Plurality decision, in a decision by a multi-member court, an opinion held by more judges than any other but not by an overall majority * Plurality (voting), when a candidate or proposition polls more ...

in the Tilburg municipal council. His party's seat number doubled to 10. Smolders called it a "historic victory". Although his party won the most seats in the municipal council of any party, it did not become part of the coalition that makes up the

executive board A board of directors is a governing body that supervises the activities of a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government agency. The powers, duties, and responsibilities of a board of directors are determined by government regulations ...

. A demonstration against the fact Smolders's party was excluded was held in April and reportedly attracted about one hundred protestors including Smolders himself.

Provincial

Smolders appeared on the ballot during the

2019 Dutch provincial elections Provincial elections were held in the Netherlands on 20 March 2019. Eligible voters elected the members of the Provincial States in the twelve provinces of the Netherlands. The elections were held on the same day as the 2019 Dutch water boards el ...

as ''

lijstduwer (; 'list pusher') is a Dutch term for the last candidate on a party list. In Suriname, the Netherlands and Belgium, this position is often taken by well-known non-politicians such as artists, celebrities and sportspeople. They are official c ...

'' of

(FvD) in the province

North Brabant North Brabant ( ; ), also unofficially called Brabant, Dutch Brabant or Hollandic Brabant, is a province in the south of the Netherlands. It borders the provinces of South Holland and Gelderland to the north, Limburg to the east, Zeeland to ...

. As ''lijstduwer'', he appeared on place 15 on FvD's list for the election and he said he wanted to be elected with preferential votes. Smolders received 20,833 preferential votes, enough to become a member of the States of North Brabant, and was sworn in on March 28. Forum for Democracy received nine out of 55 seats in the States, becoming the second biggest party behind the

VVD The People's Party for Freedom and Democracy ( , VVD) is a conservative-liberal political party in the Netherlands. The VVD, whose forerunner was the Freedom Party, is a party of the centre-right that tries to promote private enterprise and ...

. Smolders remains a member of the Tilburg municipal council.

Legal affairs

In 2007, the mayor, Ruud Vreeman, filed charges against Smolders for leaking confidential information about alleged drug trade in a nightclub. Smolders defended himself by saying the information should not have been confidential in the first place. Shortly after, Smolders charged Vreeman with fraud. He alleged the mayor wrongfully provided redundancy pay for former members of the municipal council. The court said Smolders kept leaking after he was charged, and he was given a fine of €750 on

appeal In law, an appeal is the process in which Legal case, cases are reviewed by a higher authority, where parties request a formal change to an official decision. Appeals function both as a process for error correction as well as a process of cla ...

. In October 2009, Smolders was investigated after he was accused of leaking a report about the Midi Theater to several media outlets. The report, which criticized mayor Vreeman for holding back information about

cost overrun A cost overrun, also known as a cost increase or budget overrun, involves unexpected incurred costs. When these costs are in excess of budgeted amounts due to a value engineering underestimation of the actual cost during budgeting, they are known ...

s, was made public three days after the leaking occurred. Smolders was not prosecuted, as no evidence was found he was behind the leaking. That same month, a Dutch governmental unit investigating corruption started an investigation into Smolders. According to the accusation, Smolders had asked a developer a €75,000 bribe to vote in favor of a project to build a shopping mall in Tilburg. The developer subsequently informed mayor Vreeman. Smolders denied the accusation of corruption. He said that he suspected Vreeman had been bribed into supporting the project, and that he wanted to test whether he would also be able to get a bribe from the company. According to Smolders, this was a failed plan to expose Vreeman's alleged corruption. In February 2010, it was announced that Smolders would not be prosecuted as no hard evidence was found.

Personal life

Smolders lives together with his partner, Jacqueline. They have one daughter and one son, who were born in 1988 and 1990 respectively.

Electoral history

Notes

References

External links

H.A.J. (Hans) Smolders
Parlement.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Smolders, Hans 1960 births Living people Dutch company founders Dutch ice hockey players Forum for Democracy (Netherlands) politicians Members of the Provincial Council of North Brabant Municipal councillors of Tilburg Party chairs of the Netherlands Pim Fortuyn List politicians Belang van Nederland politicians 20th-century Dutch people Dutch sportsperson-politicians Dutch MPs 2021–2023 Forum for Democracy MPs