Paul Rosenmöller (born 11 May 1956) is a Dutch

politician A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...

and former

trade union A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

ist and television presenter. Between 1989 and 2003, he was member of the Dutch

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

GroenLinks (, ; GL) is a Green politics, green List of political parties in the Netherlands, political party in the Netherlands. It was formed on 1 March 1989 from the merger of four Left-wing politics, left-wing parties: the Communist Party of the Neth ...

and was party leader from 1994. Rosenmöller has been a member of the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

for GroenLinks since June 2019 and leader of GroenLinks–Labour Party in the Senate since June 2023.

Biography

Early life

Rosenmöller was born into a

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

family in Den Helder in 1956; his father was CEO of Vroom & Dreesmann. After finishing atheneum-b in

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 ...

in 1974, Rosenmöller studied

sociology Sociology is the scientific study of human society that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. The term sociol ...

. During his studies, Rosenmöller became associated with radical socialist, Maoist groups. He stopped studying in 1978 to work in the Port of Rotterdam. He worked for the shipping company Müller Thomson. In 1985, he became a member of the board of the Transportation branch of the Federation of Dutch Trade Unions (FNV) in

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...

. He negotiated with the Confederation of Netherlands Industry and Employers (VNO–NCW) and acted as spokesperson during several strikes. Rosenmöller rose to national fame for his radical position in these negotiations and strikes. He was a member of the Group of Marxist–Leninists/Red Dawn (GML/RM) from 1976 to 1982. The GML/RM wanted to establish a

communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

state in the Netherlands and sympathized with several communist regimes, such as the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

, the People's Socialist Republic of Albania and the

Khmer Rouge The Khmer Rouge is the name that was popularly given to members of the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK), and by extension to Democratic Kampuchea, which ruled Cambodia between 1975 and 1979. The name was coined in the 1960s by Norodom Sihano ...

Cambodia Cambodia, officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. It is bordered by Thailand to the northwest, Laos to the north, and Vietnam to the east, and has a coastline ...

. Rosenmöller was criticized about 20 years later because of his past in this organisation. The human right abuses by these regimes were often cited by critics.

Political career

In 1989, he became member of the newly founded party

. GroenLinks was formed by four other parties, but Rosenmöller joined as an independent. In the 1989 general election, he was the sixth on the list of GroenLinks and the first independent; he was narrowly elected to the

. In 1993 he was candidate party leader together with , but they lost the internal elections to Mohamed Rabbae and Ina Brouwer. After the defeat of GroenLinks in the 1994 general election, Rosenmöller became the party leader. As party leader he provided opposition against the first and second cabinets of

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

Wim Kok. In 2002, however, the political climate had changed. Rosenmöller participated in the opposition against the rise of

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 ...

. At a party congress, he described Fortuyn's political position as "not just

right Rights are law, legal, social, or ethics, ethical principles of freedom or Entitlement (fair division), entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal sy ...

but extreme right". He lost the 2002 general election after the assassination of Fortuyn. In the hardened political climate after the murder of Fortuyn, serious threats against Rosenmöller's life and family were made. Because of this, Rosenmöller left politics. His successor as leader of GroenLinks was Femke Halsema. As member of parliament, Rosenmöller showed interest in the situation of the

Netherlands Antilles The Netherlands Antilles (, ; ), also known as the Dutch Antilles, was a constituent Caribbean country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands consisting of the islands of Saba (island), Saba, Sint Eustatius, and Sint Maarten in the Lesser Antilles, ...

and social participation of immigrants. In addition to being leader of the parliamentary group, he was also spokesperson for foreign affairs, finance, traffic and water management and Antillean affairs. He was chairman of the standing committee for Netherlands Antillean and

Aruba Aruba, officially the Country of Aruba, is a constituent island country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, in the southern Caribbean Sea north of the Venezuelan peninsula of Paraguaná Peninsula, Paraguaná and northwest of Curaçao. In 19 ...

n Affairs. In 2018, Rosenmöller was approached by

Jesse Klaver Jesse Feras Klaver (born 1 May 1986) is a Dutch politician serving as a member of the House of Representatives since 2010 and Leader of GroenLinks since 2015. Prior to this, he chaired the youth union of the Christian National Trade Union Federa ...

with the question of whether he would like to become party leader for GroenLinks in the

. He accepted the offer and after the 2019 Senate election he became leader of the eight-person group. The party congress of 4 February 2023 again chose Rosenmöller as the party leader for the 2023 Senate election. After these elections, GroenLinks and the Labour Party were merged. Since 13 June 2023, Rosenmöller has been leader of this group. During the annual General Political Debate in October 2024, he introduced a motion calling the planned declaration of an asylum crisis by the Schoof cabinet through emergency legislation undesirable, and he urged for an alternative approach. The motion was carried by the Senate, where opposition parties held a majority. Minister of Asylum and Migration Marjolein Faber responded that she remained intent on using emergency powers.

Television

In 2003, after leaving politics, Rosenmöller became a television presenter for the Interkerkelijke Omroep Nederland (IKON), which was an ecumenical broadcasting organisation.

Other activities

Between 2003 and 2005 Rosenmöller chaired the (PaVEM), a government advisory committee on the position of migrant women, in which Queen Máxima had a seat.

Personal life

Paul Rosenmöller is married and has five children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rosenmoller, Paul 1956 births Living people Dutch communists Dutch television presenters Dutch trade unionists Dutch people of German descent GroenLinks politicians Members of the House of Representatives (Netherlands) Leaders of GroenLinks People from Den Helder 20th-century Dutch politicians 21st-century Dutch politicians