Hans Dijkstal

Henri Frans ("Hans") Dijkstal (born February 28, 1943) is a Dutch politician. He was parliamentary leader in the Tweede Kamer of the Dutch liberal party VVD in the period 1998-2002 and he was Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Internal Affairs in the first cabinet Kok (1994-1998).

Dijkstal was born in Port Said, Egypt, where his father and grandfather worked in shipping. He was able to speak fluent Arabic before moving to the Netherlands at age five. He made a career as financial advisor, taught management courses and was council member for the city of Wassenaar. In 1982, he was for the first time elected to the Tweede Kamer, the Dutch Lower House. He took over the leadership of the VVD faction from Frits Bolkestein in 1998. Dijkstal was the highest placed candidate for the VVD party in the 2002 parliamentary elections, that turned out disastrous for the party. Afterwards, he retired from active politics.

But when his former party started taking a heavy stance on 'allochtonen' (immigrants and their children) he teamed up with former politicians from a wide range of other parties in protest, to strive for a more tolerant society, under the name Een Land Een Samenleving ('One Country One Society').

External links

*http://www.eenlandeensamenleving.nl (in Dutch)