Jozias van Aartsen

Jozias Johannes van Aartsen (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈjoːzijɑs joːˈɦɑnəs fɑn ˈaːrtsə(n)]; born 25 December 1947) is a Dutch politician of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD). He has been the Mayor of The Hague since 27 March 2008.
Van Aartsen previously served as the Minister of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality from 22 August 1994 until 3 August 1998 in the Cabinet Kok I. He became a Member of the House of Representatives for a short period serving from 19 May 1998 until 3 August 1998 following the Dutch general election of 1998. He served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs from 3 August 1998 until 22 July 2002 in the Cabinet Kok II. He returned to the Member of the House of Representatives serving from 23 May 2002 until 30 November 2006, when the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy Party leader and Parliamentary leader in the House of Representatives Gerrit Zalm became Minister of Finance and Deputy Prime Minister in the Cabinet Balkenende II.
Van Aartsen became the Parliamentary leader serving from 27 May 2003 until 8 March 2006. After disagreeing with Zalm about his position that the Party leader shouldn't be a member of the cabinet unless that person is the Prime Minister, the Parliamentary leader in the House of Representatives should be the Party leader. After months of discussions and arguing, Van Aartsen took over as Party leader from Zalm in all but name. After poor results in the Dutch municipal elections of 2006 he stepped down as Parliamentary leader and was temporally succeeded by Willibrord van Beek, until the election of Mark Rutte as the new Parliamentary leader and Party leader.
In August 2006 Van Aartsen announced that he would not run as a candidate for the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy for the upcoming Dutch general election of 2006. In 2008 he was nominated to succeed Wim Deetman as Mayor of The Hague and took office on 27 March 2008.

Jozias Johannes van Aartsen born on 25 December 1947 in The Hague, son of Jan van Aartsen a politician of the Anti Revolutionary Party (ARP), who served as Minister of Transport and Water Management, Minister of Housing and Construction and Queen's Commissioner of Zeeland. After completing the Gymnasium-a he studied law at the Vrije Universiteit but did not graduate. At the age of 22 van Aartsen moved to The Hague to work in politics.

When Hans Wiegel became Party leader, in 1971, van Aartsen was asked to work for Hans Wiegel as employee of the party in the House of Representatives. In 1974 he became Director-general of the Teldersstichting, the scientific institute of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy. In 1978 Van Aartsen became Chef de Bureau of the Secretary General of Interior. He did this under ministers Rietkerk, van Dijk, de Korte, de Koning, Dales and de Graaf. In 1985 he became Secretary General of Interior himself. He was minister of Agriculture from 1994-1998 in the First cabinet of Wim Kok. In the Second cabinet of Wim Kok he was the Minister of Foreign Affairs. When the cabinet fell as a direct result of the NIOD report about the fall of Srebrenica, he became parliamentary leader in the Dutch parliament.

On 1 April 2004 an attempt was made to overrun van Aartsen by a car when he and a co-worker were doing a photoshoot in front of Hotel Des Indes in The Hague. Van Aartsen was not hurt but the co-worker did sustain a shoulder injury. The assailant, a 41-year-old lawyer by the name of Frederiek de Jongh and an employee of Bureau Rechtshulp in Utrecht confessed her action was politically motivated.

In a letter to party leader Mark Rutte he expressed his disappointment with the demise of the Second Balkenende cabinet which in his view was uncalled for. He also warned for VVD interparty warring between a populist fraction with a no-nonsense attitude and focus on tax cuts and law and order and a liberal fraction focused on personal freedoms, rule of law, international orientation and education. Jozias van Aartsen is a member of the Bilderberg Group.