Wien van den Brink | |
|---|---|
| In office 2002–2006 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 31 May 1945 |
| Died | 10 January 2010 (2010-01-11) (aged 64) |
| Political party | Lijst Pim Fortuyn |
| Occupation | Politician, farmer, union leader |
Windeld (Wien) van den Brink (31 May 1945 – 10 January 2010) was a Dutch politician, farmer and union leader. From 2002 to 2006, he was a member of theHouse of Representatives of the Netherlands for theLijst Pim Fortuyn.
Before entering politics, van den Brink was a farmer and chairman of a farmer's union.[1] In 2002, he joined theLivable Netherlands party and was due to stand as a candidate for LN in the2002 Dutch general election, however he switched his affiliation to thePim Fortuyn List afterPim Fortuyn himself was sacked as party leader of the LN. Van den Brink was subsequently elected to parliament for the LPF.[2][3]
When the rest of the LPF parliamentary faction declared itself independent from the party, van den Brink remained attached to the LPF. He retired from the House of Representatives before the 2006 election. In the Dutch municipal elections of 2006, van den Brink was elected alderman and deputy mayor inPutten as an independent candidate and held the position in coalition with theChristian Democratic Appeal and theReformed Political Party but resigned from the position a year later.
Unusually, van den Brink had a chance encounter with Pim Fortuyn's killerVolkert van der Graaf before Fortuyn's assassination in May 2002, as van der Graaf had protested against an expansion of van den Brink's farm in Putten. When the identity of Fortuyn's murderer was publicly revealed, van den Brink referred to van der Graaf as a "fundamentalist" and a "bastard."[4]
