Chris Jansen | |
|---|---|
 Jansen in 2019 | |
| State Secretary for Public Transport and the Environment | |
| Assumed office 2 July 2024 | |
| Prime Minister | Dick Schoof |
| Minister | Barry Madlener |
| Preceded by | Vivianne Heijnen |
| Member of theHouse of Representatives | |
| In office 27 November 2019 – 30 March 2021 | |
| Preceded by | Sietse Fritsma |
| Member of theProvincial Executive ofFlevoland | |
| In office 29 June 2023 – 2024 | |
| Member of theStates of Flevoland | |
| In office 13 October 2021 – 29 June 2023 | |
| Preceded by | Jan Meindert Keuter |
| In office 10 March 2011 – 28 January 2020 | |
| Succeeded by | Jan Meindert Keuter |
| Member of theAlmereMunicipal Council | |
| In office 30 March 2022 – 29 June 2023 | |
| Succeeded by | Arnoud Ravestein |
| In office 11 March 2010 – 15 January 2020[1] | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Christiaan Anton Jansen (1966-10-27)27 October 1966 (age 58) Bussum, Netherlands |
| Political party | PVV (2010–present) |
| Children | 2 |
| Occupation |
|
Christiaan Anton Jansen (born 27 October 1966) is a Dutch politician for the right-wing populistParty for Freedom (PVV). He has been serving asState Secretary for Public Transport and the Environment since July 2024, and he previously was a member of theHouse of Representatives between November 2019 and March 2021.[2]
Jansen's political career started in 2010, when he was elected to theAlmere municipal council. Simultaneously, he served a member of theStates of Flevoland starting the next year, rising to the position ofparty leader of the province in 2013. He remained loyal toGeert Wilders, founder of the PVV, after he held a speech in which he asked a crowd whether they would want more or fewerMoroccans, being the only member of the party in Almere to not distance himself from the speech. Jansen also served as chair of the Almereaudit office for three years.
During the2017 Dutch general election, Jansen was placed 23rd on the PVV'sparty list. His party received twenty seats – not enough for Jansen to become anMP. However, whenSietse Fritsma vacated his seat in 2019, Jansen was appointed as his successor. He subsequently resigned from his positions as municipal councillor and member of the states-provincial. His term in the House ended after he lost re-election in the2021 general election, and he returned to the municipal and provincial councils afterwards. Following2023 provincial elections, the PVV joined thegoverning coalition and Jansen became a member of theProvincial Executive of Flevoland. He left the body the following year to become State Secretary for Public Transport and the Environment in theSchoof cabinet on 2 July.
Jansen was born on 27 October 1966 inBussum to anIndonesian-born mother.[3][4] He has one older brother.[3] After his education, he worked for about 20 years in thetelecommunications andIT industries.[5] During the last of these years, Jansen was a sales manager.[6]
Jansen has told that he decided to become involved in politics in 2009 as a result of thefirst trial of Geert Wilders, which Jansen regarded as a trial against thefreedom of speech.[7] He first ran for political office during the2010 municipal elections in the city Almere, where he was on place seven on the PVV's party list.[8] The Party for Freedom participated in the elections in two municipalities in the Netherlands, marking the first time the party took part in any municipal election.[9] Jansen received 179preferential votes and became a member of the council in March, as his party won aplurality of 9 out of 39 seats.[10] However, his party did not become part of the coalition that makes up theexecutive board.[11]
During thenext municipal election in 2014, Jansen was re-elected as the second person on the PVV's party list, while the party remained the largest party with again nine seats.[12][13] During election night, party leaderGeert Wilders gave a speech during which he controversially asked the crowd whether they would want more or fewerMoroccans, resulting in a "fewer, fewer, fewer" chant.[14] All PVV councilmen in Almere except for Jansen distanced themselves from Wilders' statements a few days later, causing Jansen to declare in an interview onRadio 1 Journaal that he was the only PVV councilman left in Almere and that the other eight would have to continue under a different party name.[15][16] He was subsequently expelled from the municipal PVVcaucus because of those statements and because the caucus leader said Jansen was following his own course. Two days later, the caucus made up with Jansen, and he became a member again.[15] Later that year, in August, he became the chairman of the municipal audit office.[17]
At the start of 2016, he called MayorFranc Weerwind a "wally" (flapdrol) onTwitter after he had decided to not prohibit a meeting that included two controversial Islamic preachers.[18][19] Subsequently, a local party called for Jansen's removal as chair of the audit office.[20] Another reason for this was that Jansen had incorrectly suggested the year before that a formeralderman was pressured by civil servants not to cooperate in an audit office investigation. Jansen had already acknowledged he had been wrong and had apologized to the municipal council.[21] He was not dismissed as not enough support for the move existed. Usually a term as chair lasts two years, but Jansen remained in the position until 2017, as an investigation was still ongoing.[22][20]
Jansen ran again for councilor during the2018 municipal election and was re-elected for a third term as the fourth person on the party list.[23][24] However, his party slid down to become the third biggest party in Almere, receiving 6 out of an increased 45 seats.[23] Because of his position as party leader in Flevoland, Jansen was also involved in finding candidates for his party for other municipalities in his province.[25] During the formation of the executive board of the North Holland cityDen Helder, Jansen was proposed as finance alderman. However, a local party dropped out of the formation at the last moment, and a coalition without the PVV was made.[26] He vacated his seat in the Almere municipal council during his third term in January 2019 after being appointed member to the House of Representatives.[6] After his term in the House had ended, Jansen successfully ran for municipal councilor again in the2022 municipal elections as the PVV's fourth candidate. He was sworn in on 30 March.[27][28] He stepped down on 29 June of the following year, when he was appointed to the Flevoland provincial executive.[29]
Besides serving in the Almere council, Jansen has served for a number of years on the seven-member executive board of the Flevoland branch of theAssociation of Dutch Municipalities. His last year on the board was 2015.[30]
Jansen became a member of theStates of Flevoland in March 2011, remaining in his position as councilman as well.[31] He won his seat during the2011 Dutch provincial elections, being placed third on the party list.[32] The Party for Freedom came in third in Flevoland, receiving six seats.[33] Jansen became the PVV's party leader in the States in June 2013, after his predecessorJoram van Klaveren resigned because he could no longer combine the position with his membership of the House of Representatives.[34]
Jansen was thelijsttrekker of the Party for Freedom in Flevoland during the2015 Dutch provincial elections, when his party received six seats – only fewer than theVVD.[35][36] Again, the PVV did not become part of theprovincial-executive after the VVD had said they would not include the PVV in the formation talks if Jansen would not distance himself from Wilders' speech that included a "fewer, fewer, fewer" chant. Jansen refused to meet this demand.[37] The coalition that was formed fell in February 2018, because three of its four members resigned after they lost confidence in their fourth member, Ad Meijer (SP). Before that, the former three had tried to remove Meijer through amotion of no confidence in the States of Flevoland. However, not enough parties voted in favor. Jansen's party was among the parties that voted against the motion to cause, in his words, "maximal damage to the executive council". He later called the failure of the motion a "dream scenario", as it had resulted in the fall of executive.[38] When the Van Geel Commission came out with its advice about the surplus of large herbivores in the nature reserveOostvaardersplassen later in 2018, Jansen opposed the proposed shooting of animals and instead advocated usingbirth control to decrease the population.[39]
In March 2019, Jansen was re-elected during theprovincial elections, being again the party'slijsttrekker.[40] The PVV became the third biggest party, winning four seats in total.[41] He vacated his seat on 28 January 2020 after he had become an MP.[42] After his membership of the House had ended, Jansen returned to the States of Flevoland on 13 October 2021 to fill the consecutive temporary vacancies of Jan Meindert Keuter and Irene Joosse, and he returned as the PVV's caucus leader.[43][44][45][46][47] Following plans to build a registration center for asylum seekers inBant – located in the province – Jansen filed a motion speaking out against any such center in Flevoland. It was carried by a narrow majority, and the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA) halted its plans days later.[48][49]
Jansen sought another term inMarch 2023 provincial elections as his party'slijsttrekker. He was re-elected, while the PVV lost one of its four seats.[50] The PVV became part of the coalition alongside theBBB, VVD,Christian Union, andSGP, and Jansen vacated his seat to become a Deputy for Economic Affairs and Higher Education in theprovincial executive on 29 June 2023.[51][52][53] When asked in the confirmation hearing about earlier ant-Islamist statements, Jansen replied he would not distance himself from them but promised to stop making them as a deputy.[54]
During the2017 Dutch general election, Jansen was on place 23 on the party list of the Party for Freedom.[31] His party won twenty seats and he personally received 382 preferential votes, the majority of which came from his home province ofFlevoland. The result was not sufficient to become a member of the House of Representatives.[55] Jansen was also on place nine on the party list for the2019 Dutch Senate election, but the PVV received only five seats.[56]
In October 2019, MPSietse Fritsma stepped down to start a business, resulting in Jansen becoming a member of the House of Representatives. Jansen was sworn in on 27 November 2019 and he indicated that he planned to resign from his other political positions.[31] Two people in front of Jansen in the line of succession,Karen Gerbrands and Robert Housmans, turned down the position; Gerbrands had resigned from the position of MP the year before and had criticized the party, and Housmans refused because he had recently become a member of the provincial-executive ofLimburg.[57][58] In the House of Representative, Jansen was the PVV's spokesperson in the area of health care together withFleur Agema, and he was a member of the parliamentary Committee for Health, Welfare and Sport and of the Petitions Committee.[4][59]
When the first cases ofCOVID-19 were confirmed in the Netherlands in 2020 duringthe pandemic, Jansen criticized the government for not taking enough precautions to stop the virus. He pointed at the fact that other European countries had taken more action and said Minister for Medical CareBruno Bruins should think ahead instead of solely listening to experts.[60] Besides, he accused the cabinet of withholding possible scenarios.[61]
Jansen unsuccessfully ran for re-election in the2021 general election as the PVV's 21st candidate.[62] His party won 17 seats, and Jansen's 338 votes were not enough to meet the preferential-vote threshold.[63]
After the PVV, VVD,NSC, and BBB formed theSchoof cabinet, Jansen was sworn in as State Secretary for Public Transport and the Environment on 2 July 2024.[64][65] His portfolio includes the environment (excluding climate), soil, (international) public transport, cycling policy, sustainable transport,KNMI,ANVS [nl], andPBL.[66] When asked in aGoedemorgen Nederland [nl] interview, Jansen stated that he still supported Wilders's 2014 speech about wanting fewer Moroccan people. However, he distanced himself from his response shortly after, clarifying that it reflected his personal opinion rather than that of the cabinet, following a rebuke from Prime MinisterDick Schoof. Schoof reiterated to the House of Representatives that cabinet members should refrain from expressing personal opinions.[67]
Fourteen municipalities had been planning to phase inzero-emission zones for commercial vehicles in their city centers over the years 2025–2029. Thecoalition agreement contained a commitment to postponing their implementation, and amotion byHester Veltman (VVD) was passed by the House in October 2024 calling on Jansen to exempt commercial vehicles until 2029. Jansen subsequently called on municipalities to not enforce the zones in their first year and to postpone by a year the effective date for the cleanest type of diesel delivery vans. Municipalities did not comply with Jansen's request.[68][69] In accordance with a ruling by theOSPAR Commission, Jansen classifiedPFAS as asubstance of very high concern, requiring companies to take steps to release these chemical compounds into the environment.[70] He relied on theEuropean Union (EU) to establish further regulations to ban the substance.[71]
His municipal positions included creating more housing, increasing the quality of education, and making sports more accessible.[7] During his political career, he has also opposedIslamization and the construction of newmosques in Almere, and he has said he would like the government to revoke passports of criminal immigrants withmultiple citizenship.[5][72]
Jansen has also objected to some forms of or increases in government spending; he has opposed proposals to increase cultural subsidies in Flevoland, was against spending €470 million on the development ofNieuw Land National Park, and has criticized environmental subsidies leading to the construction of many windmills in the province.[5][73][74] He has acknowledged the existence ofclimate change, but called it a natural process that has been going on throughout history and hasdenied human activity as a major cause, contradicting thescientific consensus on climate change. Jansen has also called measures to address climate change including theenergy transition too expensive.[39]
Furthermore, he has asked for more transparency in the public financing of the expositionFloriade 2022, planned to be held in Almere.[75] He has also accused the municipality of including part of the event's costs in other proposals to make the total costs seem smaller.[76]
Jansen has a wife and two children.[7] While an MP, he was a resident ofAlmere, where he had moved to in 1998.[4][24] He has playedsoccer, starting in his childhood at theNaarden club NVC.[3]
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| Year | Body | Party | Pos. | Votes | Result | Ref. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party seats | Individual | |||||||
| 2019 | Senate | Party for Freedom | 9 | 0 | 5 | Lost | [77] | |
| 2021 | House of Representatives | Party for Freedom | 21 | 338 | 17 | Lost | [78] | |
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Vivianne Heijnen as Minister for the Environment | State Secretary for Public Transport and the Environment 2024–present | Incumbent |
 | ||
