Jolande Sap

Johanna Catharina Maria "Jolande" Sap (born May 22, 1963 in Venlo) is a Dutch GreenLeft (GroenLinks) politician and former educator and civil servant. She replaced Wijnand Duyvendak as an MP on September 3, 2008, after he left the Dutch House of Representatives. Since September 2, 2008 she was temporarily replacing Mariko Peters who was on parental leave but the next day Wijnand Duyvendak officially renounced, so she could succeed him. From December 16, 2010 to October 5, 2012 she was Party leader as well as Parliamentary group leader of the GreenLeft party in the House of Representatives, replacing Femke Halsema who announced her retirement from politics as of that date.

Sap studied economics at the Tilburg University between 1981 and 1989 where she specialized in political economy and philosophy.

Between 1985 and 1988 Sap was a student assistant and coordinator at the department of development cooperation. She continued to work at the University of Amsterdam as researcher for three years. She studied the difference in pay between men and women. After that she became a research associate at the government Council for Emancipation. She initiated "Out of the Margin": two international conferences on feminist economics in 1992 and 1998. This led to a book, Out of the Margin. Feminist Perspectives on Economics, which she edited with Susan Feiner. Since 1993 she was active within GreenLeft, as member of its economic committee.

In 1996 she started to work at the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment, where she advised top civil servants on emancipation and lifetime-planning policy (combining labour, care and education throughout life), in addition to salary, income and pension policy.

In 2003 she left the ministry to become director of LEEFtijd (LIFEtime). She reoriented LEEFtijd on new issues such as the demographic developments in the Netherlands and lifetime-planning policy. In 2006 she co-authored GreenLeft's election program. She was put on the eighth place of the list of the House of Representatives for the 2006 elections. The party only won seven seats. In 2007 she became a member of the panel on principles of the Van Ojik committee, which would organize the discussion leading to a new Greenleft manifesto of principles. In 2008 she left LEEFtijd for a sabbatical. In August 2008 it was announced that she would replace Wijnand Duyvendak, who was leaving the House of Representatives.

After national elections on September 12, 2012 the size of the representation of the GreenLeft party within the House of Representatives was reduced from 10 seats to 4 seats. On October 5, 2012 Jolande Sap was forced to step down as leader in the House of Representatives for GreenLeft by the board of the GreenLeft party. Some days later Bram van Ojik became GL's new leader in the House of Representatives.

Sap is a specialist on social-economic issues. She values economic independence as an important condition for freedom. She seeks to stimulate emancipation and fight social exclusion. She wants to work on practical policies which would implement GreenLeft ideals such as self-realization, fairness and sustainability.