Nilüfer Gündoğan
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Nilüfer Gündoğan (, ; born 6 June 1977) is a Dutch politician, who was 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 ...
. She was elected to the House in the 2021 general election on behalf of
Volt Netherlands Volt Netherlands (, commonly abbreviated to Volt) is a political party in the Netherlands. It is the Dutch chapter of Volt Europa, a political movement that operates on a European level. History Volt Netherlands was founded in Utrecht on 23 June ...
. In February 2022, she was suspended from its
parliamentary group A parliamentary group, parliamentary caucus or political group is a group consisting of members of different political party, political parties or independent politicians with similar ideologies. Some parliamentary systems allow smaller politic ...
following internal reports of unacceptable behavior. Gündoğan had before worked as a consultant and manager.


Early life and career

Gündoğan was born on 6 June 1977 in
Nazımiye Nazımiye (), formerly known as Kızıl Kilise (, ), is a municipality and seat of the Nazımiye District of Tunceli Province in Turkey. It had a population of 1,262 in 2021. It is populated by Zazas, Zaza Kurds of the Arel and Lolan (tribe), Lol ...
,
Tunceli Province Tunceli Province (), formerly Dersim Province (; ; ), is a province in the Eastern Anatolia Region of Turkey. Its central city is Tunceli. The province has a Kurdish majority. Moreover, it is the only province in Turkey with an Alevi majority. ...
,
Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...
, into an
Alevi Alevism (; ; ) is a syncretic heterodox Islamic tradition, whose adherents follow the mystical Islamic teachings of Haji Bektash Veli, who taught the teachings of the Twelve Imams, whilst incorporating some traditions from shamanism. Differing ...
family, belonging to the
Zazas The Zazas (), also known as Kird, Kirmanc, or Dimili, are an Iranian people who speak Zazaki, a language of the Indo-European language family. They mostly live in the Eastern Anatolia and Southeastern Anatolia regions of Turkey. Zazas gen ...
. She has a brother and a sister. Her father had been a teacher in Turkey and had moved to the Netherlands as a
guest worker Foreign workers or guest workers are people who work in a country other than one of which they are a citizen. Some foreign workers use a guest worker program in a country with more preferred job prospects than in their home country. Guest worke ...
to work in a factory. When Gündoğan was 18 months old and when her father had been in the Netherlands for five years, her family moved to the Netherlands, and she grew up in the city of
Weert Weert (; ) is a Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality and city in the southeastern Netherlands located in the western part of the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of Limburg (Netherlands), Limburg. It lies on the Eindhoven–Maas ...
,
Limburg Limburg or Limbourg may refer to: Regions * Limburg (Belgium), a province since 1839 in the Flanders region of Belgium * Limburg (Netherlands), a province since 1839 in the south of the Netherlands * Diocese of Limburg, Roman Catholic Diocese in ...
. There, she attended the secondary school Philips van Horne at vwo level. She moved in 1996 to Amsterdam to study medicine, but she quit in 2003 without a degree. According to Gündoğan, this was caused by her violent father. She has told that she was hospitalized in September 2001 after her father had attempted to kill her and that she subsequently fell into a depression. In the years 2005–07, she studied
political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and Power (social and political), power, and the analysis of political activities, political philosophy, political thought, polit ...
at
Leiden University Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; ) is a Public university, public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. Established in 1575 by William the Silent, William, Prince of Orange as a Protestantism, Protestant institution, it holds the d ...
, but she again did not graduate. Gündoğan worked simultaneously project assistant for the municipality of
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 ...
. She held the position of strategic renewal project manager at the municipality between 2009 and 2012. Gündoğan later worked as a consultant, account manager, and interim manager at several other organizations including Rainman Group and jb Lorenz. When she was elected to the House, she also owned her own consultancy called Nilüfer Advies.


Political career

Gündoğan identifies as a
social liberal Social liberalism is a political philosophy and variety of liberalism that endorses social justice, social services, a mixed economy, and the expansion of civil and political rights, as opposed to classical liberalism which favors limited g ...
and joined the political 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) in 2009. She participated in its development program Route66 for two years and served on the board of Amsterdam's D66 wing between late 2011 and 2013. Gündoğan wanted to become D66's in
Amsterdam-Zuid Amsterdam-Zuid (; Amsterdam South) is a Boroughs of Amsterdam, borough (''stadsdeel'') of Amsterdam, Netherlands. The borough was formed in 2010 as a merger of the former boroughs Amsterdam Oud-Zuid, Oud-Zuid and Zuideramstel. The borough has almo ...
for the
2014 elections * 2014 United Nations Security Council election 16 October 2014 Africa * 2014 Algerian presidential election 17 April 2014 * 2014 Botswana general election 24 October 2014 * 2014 Comorian presidential election 21 February and 10 April 2014 * 2014 ...
but lost to Sebastiaan Capel. Over the years, she became disappointed with some aspects of D66, and she joined Volt in 2018, the year its Dutch branch was founded. Gündoğan stands for a liberal democracy and society and has warned against tampering with liberal democratic principles in the Netherlands. She has been vocal in her support for the
European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...
to tackle cross-border issues, including the
migrant crisis A migrant crisis is a difficult or dangerous situation that arises due to the movements of large groups of immigrants (displaced people, refugees or asylum seekers) in the receiving state (destination country). Migrants are often escaping from co ...
,
climate change Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...
, digital security, and liberal democracy. Gündoğan was the second candidate of Volt Netherlands in the 2019 European Parliament elections. The party received 1.93% of the vote, not enough to meet the threshold for a seat in the European Parliament.


House of Representatives

In the
2021 Dutch general election General elections were held in the Netherlands from 15 to 17 March 2021 to elect all 150 members of the House of Representatives. Following the elections and lengthy coalition formation talks, the sitting government remained in power. The elect ...
, Gündoğan was again placed second on Volt's
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 ...
. She had been a candidate to be the party's , but this position had gone to
Laurens Dassen Laurens Antonius Josephus Maria Dassen (born 19 October 1985) is a Dutch politician and former banker. Dassen grew up in Knegsel, studied business administration at Radboud University and worked for ABN AMRO for six years. He has been a member o ...
instead in June 2020. Gündoğan received 41,352
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 ...
in the election and her party won three seats. She was installed into 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 31 March. She is on the Procedure Committee and on the Committees for Defence; for Education, Culture and Science; for Finance; and for Public Expenditure. In June 2021, Gündoğan filed 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 ...
to prohibit tobacco lobbying, but it came seven votes short of passing the House. Another proposal of her was a new tax on profit made from the sale of a house, similar to an existing one in France, in order to address rising housing prices by combatting
speculation In finance, speculation is the purchase of an asset (a commodity, good (economics), goods, or real estate) with the hope that it will become more valuable in a brief amount of time. It can also refer to short sales in which the speculator hope ...
. She wrote a letter to Speaker
Vera Bergkamp Vera Alida Bergkamp (; ; born 1 June 1971) is a retired Dutch politician. A member of the Democrats 66 (D66) party, she served as Speaker of the House of Representatives from 7 April 2021 to 5 December 2023. She was a member of the House of R ...
with Sjoerd Sjoerdsma (D66), in which they called for a discussion with the House's
presidium A presidium or praesidium is a council of executive officers in some countries' political assemblies that collectively administers its business, either alongside an individual president or in place of one. The term is also sometimes used for the ...
to address threatening comments made by House members of
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 ...
(FVD) during debates. One of the incidents they referred to occurred in 2021 when Gündoğan had complained about intimidating emails by DENK and FVD supporters. House member Gideon van Meijeren had subsequently said that he was very proud that his supporters were going all out to change her mind about the government's response to the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
. Gündoğan continued to speak out against extreme language and threats on social media, and she filed a police report following death threats. She mostly blamed right-wing populist politicians, calling
Geert Wilders Geert Wilders (born 6 September 1963) is a Dutch politician who has led the far-right Party for Freedom (PVV) since he founded it in 2006. He is also the party's leader in the House of Representatives. Wilders is best known for his right-wing p ...
a "nasty racist" on
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. She apologized for a tweet in which she said she would inject
Thierry Baudet Thierry Henri Philippe Baudet (; born 28 January 1983) is a Dutch politician, author, and self-declared Conspiracy theory, conspiracy theorist. He is the founder and leader of the far-right Forum for Democracy (FvD), for which he has been a memb ...
everyday if there would have been a vaccine against fascism. After Gideon van Meijeren declared in a July 2022 speech that farmers could sometimes be justified in using violence during the period of farmers' protests, Gündoğan announced that she would file a criminal complaint for sedition and inciting violence.


Expulsion from Volt

A number of internal complaints about unacceptable behavior by Gündoğan led Volt to suspend her from their parliamentary group on 13 February 2022 awaiting the results of an external investigation. The episode occurred during a wave of allegations of inappropriate behavior against high-profile people in the Netherlands. Gündoğan said that she was unaware of the nature of the complaints. In a statement two days later, she called her suspension disproportionate, and she declared that she would keep her House seat regardless of the outcome of the investigation. She also said that she would be sorry if her working style had made anyone feel unsafe. Her lawyers announced on 18 February that Gündoğan would take legal action against Volt's parliamentary group in order to end her suspension, to get a rectification, and to receive damages. The party stated, in turn, that she was unwilling to cooperate with the external investigation, which Gündoğan had described as not independent. Volt decided to permanently expel Gündoğan from its parliamentary group on 26 February as a result of 13 allegations from fellow party members of physical violence, unwanted sexual advances, intimidation, and abuse of her position. That same day, Gündoğan filed a criminal complaint for
defamation Defamation is a communication that injures a third party's reputation and causes a legally redressable injury. The precise legal definition of defamation varies from country to country. It is not necessarily restricted to making assertions ...
against Volt's board, party leader Laurens Dassen, and the accusers. A judge determined on 9 March that the expulsion had been unjust, as procedures had not been followed correctly and as there had been no proper justification, and ordered its immediate reversal as well as €5,000 in damages. Dassen also apologized to Gündoğan in reaction. The proceedings made clear that three complaints concerned sexual advances and another three concerned slaps on the butt, while the others were related to verbal assault and excessive alcohol usage. Gündoğan denied having crossed any boundaries with her behavior. Newspaper ''
NRC Handelsblad ''NRC'', previously called ' (), is a daily morning newspaper published in the Netherlands by Mediahuis NRC. It is widely regarded as a newspaper of record in the country. History was first published on 1 October 1970 after a merger of the Amst ...
'' published an article on 13 March outlining several instances of Gündoğan's alleged unacceptable behavior after having spoken with five of the accusers. It included anger outbursts, drunken behavior, and asking for sex as well as a slap on the butt of a female minor, which was described by the victim as intimidation. Gündoğan dismissed the allegations, calling them a smear campaign and calling their level painfully low. Days after the article's publication, Dassen and Volt's board made clear that reconciliation could only be achieved if Gündoğan would withdraw her criminal complaints. She instead told on talk show '' Jinek'' that she had expanded them. Volt subsequently announced that it would appeal the judge's decision, and Gündoğan was again expelled from the party's parliamentary group on 22 March following a vote among its three members after the
by-law A by-law (bye-law, by(e)law, by(e) law), is a set of rules or law established by an organization or community so as to regulate itself, as allowed or provided for by some higher authority. The higher authority, generally a legislature or some othe ...
s had been altered to allow for this. Furthermore, Volt's board decided to end her membership of the party on 28 March. Gündoğan returned to the House of Representatives on 10 May as the leader of her own parliamentary group – Lid Gündoğan (Member Gündoğan) – after nearly three months of absence, bringing the number of groups in the House to a record-breaking twenty. She told that the focus of her work would be on finances, democracy, and the rule of law. The Public Prosecution Service dismissed Gündoğan's criminal complaints for defamation a few months later. An Amsterdam
appellate court An appellate court, commonly called a court of appeal(s), appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear a case upon appeal from a trial court or other lower tribunal. Appel ...
reversed the lower court's earlier decision on 7 February 2023, ruling that Volt had been justified in expelling Gündoğan from their parliamentary group. However, it did conclude that Volt's original press release about Gündoğan's alleged unacceptable behavior had been a little premature and sometimes formulated in an unfortunate way. Volt published a report of its own about the affair in May, but it did not draw any conclusions or provide concrete examples of unacceptable behavior.


2023 general election

The fall of the
fourth Rutte cabinet The fourth Rutte cabinet was the cabinet of the Netherlands from 10 January 2022 until 2 July 2024. The cabinet was a continuation of the third Rutte cabinet and was formed by the conservative liberal People's Party for Freedom and Democracy ( ...
in July 2023 triggered a November snap election. Gündoğan announced she would not run for re-election, saying she did not have enough time to establish a new party.


Personal life

Gündoğan has been living in Amsterdam since 1996. She was married to Bas Vogels, whom she knew from D66. Bas was diagnosed with incurable
colorectal cancer Colorectal cancer (CRC), also known as bowel cancer, colon cancer, or rectal cancer, is the development of cancer from the Colon (anatomy), colon or rectum (parts of the large intestine). Signs and symptoms may include Lower gastrointestinal ...
months after their relationship had started in January 2014. They married in 2015 in France, and Nilüfer subsequently bore the last name Vogels. Bas was voluntarily euthanized in March 2017, about half a year after the birth of their son Mikail. Gündoğan raises her son as a
single parent A single parent is a person who has a child or children but does not have a spouse or live-in partner to assist in the upbringing or support of the child. Reasons for becoming a single parent include death, divorce, break-up, abandonment, bec ...
. She is an
atheist Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...
.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gundogan, Nilufer 1977 births Living people 21st-century Dutch civil servants 21st-century Dutch women politicians Dutch atheists Dutch management consultants Dutch people of Kurdish descent Independent politicians in the Netherlands Dutch MPs 2021–2023 People from Nazımiye People from Weert Politicians from Amsterdam Turkish emigrants to the Netherlands Volt Europa politicians Zaza Alevis Politicians affected by a party expulsion process