Hülya Kat (born 1 August 1983) is a Dutch politician, serving as 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 ...

on behalf of the social liberal party

Democrats 66 Democrats 66 (; D66) is a social liberal and progressive political party in the Netherlands, which is positioned on the centre to centre-left of the political spectrum. It is a member of the Liberal International (LI) and the Alliance of Li ...

(D66). She was a member of the

Velsen Velsen () is a municipality in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. It is located on both sides of the North Sea Canal. On the north side of the North Sea Canal there is a major steel plant, Tata Steel IJmuiden, formerly known as ...

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 ...

between 2010 and 2018, when she was elected to the

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

council. Kat won a seat in the House in the 2021 general election.

Early life and education

Kat was born in 1983 in the

North Holland North Holland (, ) is a Provinces of the Netherlands, province of the Netherlands in the northwestern part of the country. It is located on the North Sea, north of South Holland and Utrecht (province), Utrecht, and west of Friesland and Flevola ...

port town of

IJmuiden n IJ (digraph) and that should remain the only places where they are used. > IJmuiden () is a port town in the Netherlands, Dutch province of North Holland. It is the main town in the municipality of Velsen which lies mainly to the south-ea ...

to Turkish-born parents, who had come to the Netherlands in 1970. She grew up in that town and in

Santpoort-Noord Santpoort-Noord (; Santpoort North) is a village in the municipality of Velsen in the Dutch province of North Holland. It lies directly north of Haarlem. Santpoort developed in the dunes near the Brederode Castle (13th century). Santpoort Noor ...

with her two younger brothers, and she attended the

Haarlem Haarlem (; predecessor of ''Harlem'' in English language, English) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the Provinces of the Nether ...

secondary school Erasmus College. Kat studied law at the

University of Groningen The University of Groningen (abbreviated as UG; , abbreviated as RUG) is a Public university#Continental Europe, public research university of more than 30,000 students in the city of Groningen (city), Groningen, Netherlands. Founded in 1614, th ...

between 2002 and 2009 with

intellectual property law Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, ...

as specialization and returned to her parents in IJmuiden afterwards.

Career

She joined

in 2009 and first appeared on the ballot in the 2010 municipal election in

as the party's fifth candidate. D66 won four municipal council seats, but Kat was elected despite this result because of her

preference votes Preferential voting or preference voting (PV) may refer to different election systems or groups of election systems: * Any electoral system that allows a voter to indicate multiple preferences where preferences marked are weighted or used as cont ...

. At the time, Kat also volunteered at the Velsen animal ambulance. She became chair of the municipality's John van Dijk Fund, which aims to engage young people in politics, shortly after her election. Kat's focus in the council was on safety and public order, and she was re-elected in 2014 as D66's third candidate. She was also placed 38th on the

party list An electoral list is a grouping of candidates for election, usually found in proportional or mixed electoral systems, but also in some plurality electoral systems. An electoral list can be registered by a political party (a party list) or can c ...

in the 2017 general election. Kat received 2,685 preference votes, but she was not elected due to D66 winning nineteen seats. She moved to the Dutch capital of Amsterdam in 2018, while she was working as an HR officer at a cleaning company. Kat was D66's ninth candidate in Amsterdam in the 2018 municipal election, which was held a month after she had left the Velsen municipal council. Her party won eight seats in Amsterdam, but Kat did end up in the municipal council in May 2018, when another D66 member left the council. She became her party's spokesperson for economic affairs, port, airport, and

spatial planning Spatial planning mediates between the respective claims on space of the state, market, and community. In so doing, three different mechanisms of involving stakeholders, integrating sectoral policies and promoting development projects mark the th ...

and the chair of the mobility, air quality, and water committee. She also started working as a senior staff and organizational advisor at the Amsterdam district court in June 2018. Kat ran again for member of parliament in the 2021 general election, being placed seventeenth on the party list. She received 15,620 preference votes and was sworn into the

on 31 March. She was replaced in the Amsterdam municipal council that same day, and she left her job at the district court. In the House, Kat's specializations were poverty, debts, and the childcare benefits scandal, the Participation Act, and law, and she is on the Committees for Credentials, Defence, Finance, Justice and Security (chair), Public Expenditure, and Social Affairs and Employment (vice chair). In October 2021, she also took over Rens Raemakers's position on the committee of the parliamentary inquiry into natural gas extraction Groningen. She was her party's in Amsterdam in the 2022 municipal elections. Following reports in March 2022 about an administrator who had embezzled money from debtors he was managing the finances of, Kat suggested changes to the system. She proposed for municipalities to provide a central point for help in case of high debts, which would create a three-year plan to get out of debt and to prevent a repeat. This is supposed to prevent debts continuing for many years, which could be in the financial interest of the administrator. In late 2022, the House of Representatives passed a

motion In physics, motion is when an object changes its position with respect to a reference point in a given time. Motion is mathematically described in terms of displacement, distance, velocity, acceleration, speed, and frame of reference to an o ...

by Kat to have the government provide free period products to low-income households. Another

amendment An amendment is a formal or official change made to a law, contract, constitution, or other legal document. It is based on the verb to amend, which means to change for better. Amendments can add, remove, or update parts of these agreements. They ...

co-filed by Kat was carried to shorten the term for personal

debt restructuring Debt restructuring is a process that allows a private or public company or a sovereign entity facing cash flow problems and financial distress to reduce and renegotiate its delinquent debts to improve or restore liquidity so that it can continu ...

from three to one and a half years. Kat has been part of the

board of directors 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 regulatio ...

of UNESCO Centrum Nederland, which provides

development aid Development aid (or development cooperation) is a type of aid given by governments and other agencies to support the economic, environmental, social, and political International development, development of developing countries. It is distinguishe ...

, since 2012.

Personal life

She moved from Amsterdam to

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

, while a member of parliament, and she is a supporter of the football club

AZ Alkmaar Alkmaar Zaanstreek (), better known internationally as AZ Alkmaar, or simply and most commonly as AZ () in the Netherlands, is a Dutch professional Association football, football club from Alkmaar and the Zaan#The Zaan district, Zaan district. ...

Electoral history

References

External links

Personal website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kat, Hulya 1983 births 21st-century Dutch women politicians Democrats 66 politicians Dutch people of Turkish descent Living people Dutch MPs 2021–2023 Municipal councillors of Amsterdam People from Velsen University of Groningen alumni