Joost Eerdmans

Bernard Johannes "Joost" Eerdmans (born 9 January 1971) is a Dutch politician who served as a member of the House of Representatives from 2002 to 2006. He was elected to Parliament for the Pim Fortuyn List (LPF) but sat from 2004 as an Independent. A member of the Livable Rotterdam (LR) local party since 2013, he has been an alderman and Deputy Mayor of Rotterdam since 2014. Eerdmans is also the lijstrekker of the JA21 national party in the 2021 general election, which he co-founded in 2020 upon leaving Forum for Democracy (FvD).

Joost Eerdmans
Leader of Group Eerdmans-Van Schijndel
in the House of Representatives
In office
25 September 2006 – 30 November 2006
Preceded byGroup established
Succeeded byGroup disbanded
Member of the House of Representatives
In office
23 May 2002 – 30 November 2006
Personal details
Born
Bernard Johannes Eerdmans

(1971-01-09) 9 January 1971
Harderwijk, Netherlands
NationalityDutch
Political partyLivable Rotterdam (since 2013)
Other political
affiliations		Christian Democratic Appeal
(until 2002)
Pim Fortuyn List (2002–2004)
Independent (2004–2006)
One NL (2006)
Livable Capelle (since 2009) Forum for Democracy (2020)
JA21 (since 2020)
Spouse(s)Married (since 2006)
ChildrenMaartje (born 2007)
Douwe (born 2009)
ResidenceRotterdam
Alma materErasmus University Rotterdam (Master of Public Administration)
Indiana University
(Master of Public Administration)
OccupationPolitician
Civil servant
Management consultant
Political consultant
Television presenter
Television producer
Radio presenter
Political pundit
Columnist
Author
Website(in Dutch) Official site

Early life

Bernard Johannes Eerdmans was born on 9 January 1971 in Harderwijk in the province of Gelderland in a Reformed family. He graduated at the Christelijk College Nassau-Veluwe. After that, Eerdmans studied Management Science at the Erasmus Universiteit in Rotterdam. In 1995 he received his master's degree, having undertaken postgraduate studies at the Public administration School for Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana in 1993.

Politics

Political career

After working for some time on projects for the Christian Democratic Appeal, Eerdmans worked at the Ministry of Justice from 1997 until 1999. In 1999 he became secretary to Ivo Opstelten, the Mayor of Rotterdam.

Pim Fortuyn List

In 2002 Eerdmans contacted Pim Fortuyn, who at that time was busy assembling a list of candidates for his new political party, the Pim Fortuyn List (LPF). Eerdmans was placed nineteenth on the list and after the 2002 election he became a member of the House of Representatives, while his party joined the First Balkenende cabinet.

After the fall of the cabinet, new elections were called. This time the LPF won only eight seats, but since Eerdmans was second on the list he remained in Parliament. He was removed from the party's parliamentary faction after it was definitively announced that Eerdmans would be on the One NL candidate list for the 2006 election.

One NL

For the 2006 general election, Eerdmans split with the LPF to form a new political party called One NL with Marco Pastors of Livable Rotterdam. After the dismal result of One NL in the 2006 election, Eerdmans left Dutch politics.

Leefbaar Rotterdam

Eerdmans was elected lijsttrekker of Leefbaar Rotterdam on 6 October 2013.[1] In the local elections of 2014 Leefbaar Rotterdam became the biggest party in Rotterdam, meaning the party would get the chance to lead the formation of a new coalition. The party subsequently formed a coalition with the Democrats 66 (D66) and Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA), in which Eerdmans became an alderman.[2]

Forum for Democracy

For the 2021 general election, Eerdmans was to be fourth on the party list of Forum for Democracy (FvD) led by Thierry Baudet, but he quit the party soon after the announcement, in response to the party's handling of antisemitism, homophobia and racism scandals from other party members, before it could be effectuated.

JA21

After leaving the Forum for Democracy, Eerdmans founded a new political party JA21 (Right Answer 2021) with ex-FvD members which aims to compete in the 2021 general election. Eerdmans was appointed party leader and lijsttrekker of JA21.

Career outside politics

Eerdmans was a television host on the Dutch channel Het Gesprek. He was also one of the hosts of the Dutch program TROS Regelrecht.

References
  1. (in Dutch) Joost Eerdmans lijsttrekker van Leefbaar Rotterdam, LeefbaarRotterdam.nl, 6 October 2013
  2. (in Dutch) College van b en w Rotterdam, Rotterdam.nl, 20 May 2014
Official
Party political offices
New creation Parliamentary leader of Group Eerdmans-Van Schijndel
in the House of Representatives
2006		 Group disbanded
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