Martin Bosma | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Bosma in 2023 | |
| Speaker of the House of Representatives | |
| In office 14 December 2023 – 18 November 2025 | |
| Preceded by | Vera Bergkamp |
| Succeeded by | Thom van Campen |
| Member of theHouse of Representatives | |
| Assumed office 30 November 2006 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1964-07-16)16 July 1964 (age 61) |
| Political party | Party for Freedom (since 2006) |
| Alma mater | University of Amsterdam New School of Social Research |
Martin Bosma (born 16 July 1964) is a Dutch politician and former journalist who served as theSpeaker of the House of Representatives from 2023 to 2025. He entered the House of Representatives for theParty for Freedom (PVV) on 30 November 2006, and served as his party's spokesperson on matters ofhigher education,mass media andculture. He also served as Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives from 2010 until 2023. On 14 December 2023, he was elected Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Born inWormer, Bosma studiedpolitical science with a specialisation inpublic administration at theUniversity of Amsterdam andsociology at theNew School of Social Research inNew York City. He has been pursuing a doctorate at the University of Amsterdam, but hisdissertation about the Dutch involvement in theanti-apartheid movement was rejected for a second time in 2024. His initial supervisor wasMeindert Fennema.[1]
He worked many years for several news media, first as a reporter for one of his local papers,De Zaanlander, and as one of the principal anchormen forHoeksteen Live, a monthly cable TV programme in the 1990s described as a "political programme with a cultural supplement",[2] and subsequently for outlets includingCNN Business News,ABC'sNightline andNOS Journaal. From 2002 to 2004 he was director of Nederlandse Radiogroep and from 2004 to 2006 he was active as apolitical consultant for the PVV's predecessorGroep Wilders.
Since 2004, Bosma worked for the 'Wilders Group' and later for theParty for Freedom (PVV) that emerged from it, including as campaign manager. He also wrote many ofGeert Wilders' speeches.[3] Bosma was first elected to theHouse of Representatives in the2006 general election.
For the PVV, Bosma was spokesperson for media and culture and secretary of the PVV party. He has been highly critical of public broadcasting, usually referred to by him as the "state broadcaster". Bosma is a declared opponent of theDutch public broadcasting system. He has often spoken of what he considers the left-wing character of public broadcasting, which he considers in violation of the Dutch Media Act. He is also an opponent of subsidies to the arts. In March 2009, Bosma submitted a motion to limit the number of current affairs programs on Dutch public broadcastersVARA and NPS starting in 2010. This should reduce the "leftist character" of public broadcasting.[4] In September 2009, he submitted parliamentary questions about "Islam propaganda" in public broadcasting children's programs. The parliamentary questions were submitted in response to a preschool program on public TV aboutEid al-Fitr.[5]
Bosma has put in doubt the impartiality of theJudiciary of the Netherlands, claiming that "judges in the Netherlands are independent but not impartial; we see that many rulings resembleD66's program". Opposition leaderJesse Klaver ofGroenLinks confronted him during his 2023 candidacy for Speaker of the House of Representatives with his claim. In his reply, Bosma defended that position stating he did so in his role as member of the House of Representatives, and that as Speaker of the House of Representatives, he will guard the Dutchseparation of powers and do so neutrally.[6]
Bosma regularly argues that there is "repopulation" in the Netherlands.[7] According to that controversial theory, the original Dutch population is being replaced by a new population. The DutchNational Coordinator for Security and Counterterrorism (NCTV) has identified this theory as one of the focus areas of the Dutch right-wing extremist scene to normalise their extremists ideology.[8][9]
During the2010 cabinet formation, Bosma was active as a negotiator. Together with his party colleague Tony van Dijck, he spent six weeks at theMinistry of Finance in order to find 18 billion euros in budget cuts with MinisterJan Kees de Jager (CDA) and State SecretaryFrans Weekers (VVD).
Bosma became a member of the Presidium of the House of Representatives on 30 June 2010, serving as the Second Deputy Speaker. As such, whenGerdi Verbeet resigned as Speaker on 20 September 2012, Bosma served as ActingSpeaker of the House of Representatives until 25 September 2012.[10] He attempted to become Speaker in the 2016 election, but he came fourth, obtaining sixteen votes in the first round of voting.[11] He retained his position of Second Deputy Speaker. In April 2021, he made another attempt to become Speaker. On 14 December 2023, he finally succeeded with 75 votes out of 148 cast in total.[12] He had beenre-elected the month before, and he became his party's spokesperson for the interior.[13]
As speaker, Bosma opened meetings of the House of Representatives by reciting different poems.[14] During theGaza war, pro-Palestinian protesters entered the building of the House on several occasions despite the parliament's ban on demonstrations indoor. Bosma decided to file criminal complaints.[15]
In May 2024, shortly after the agreement betweenPVV,VVD,NSC andBBB to form a new Dutch government was presented, Bosma interruptedLaurens Dassen ofVolt Netherlands in a plenary debate for using the wordextreemrechts ("extreme right") when referring to the Party for Freedom. According to Bosma, parties or members of the House should not be referred to as extreme right, as it is aNazi comparison. A number of members rallied around Dassen, arguing Bosma compromised his independence with this intervention. Bosma did not retract his words, despite members' requests.[16] Later that year, Bosma's invitation to the national slavery remembrance onKetikoti was withdrawn because of statements he made before becoming speaker.[17]
| Year | Body | Party | Pos. | Votes | Result | Ref. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party seats | Individual | |||||||
| 2006 | House of Representatives | Party for Freedom | 5 | 391 | 9 | Won | [18] | |
| 2010 | 5 | 1,955 | 24 | Won | [19] | |||
| 2012 | 3 | 3,808 | 15 | Won | [20] | |||
| 2017 | 6 | 6,430 | 20 | Won | [21] | |||
| 2021 | 7 | 22,781 | 17 | Won | [22] | |||
| 2023 | 5 | 47,189 | 37 | Won | [23] | |||
| 2025 | 6 | 17,350 | 26 | Won | [24] | |||
Spain: Grand Cross of theOrder of Civil Merit (9 April 2024)[25]
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Speaker of the House of Representatives 2023–2025 | Succeeded by |
House of Representatives 12 November 2025 – present | ||
| Democrats 66 26 seats |  | |
| Party for Freedom 26 seats | ||
| People's Party for Freedom and Dem. 22 seats | ||
| GroenLinks–Labour Party 20 seats | ||
| Christian Democratic Appeal 18 seats | ||
| JA21 9 seats | ||
| Forum for Democracy 7 seats | ||
| Farmer–Citizen Movement 4 seats | ||
| Denk 3 seats | ||
| Reformed Political Party 3 seats | ||
| Party for the Animals 3 seats | ||
| Christian Union 3 seats | ||
| Socialist Party 3 seats | ||
| 50Plus 2 seats | ||
| Volt 1 seat | ||
Bold indicates theparliamentary leader (first mentioned) and theSpeaker; (Brackets) indicate a temporarily absent member; Italics indicate a temporary member; ‹Guillemets› indicate a member who has left the House of Representatives See also:Members of the Senate of the Netherlands, 2023–2027 | ||
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| National | |
| Other | |
