Piet Hein Donner

Jan Pieter Hendrik "Piet Hein" Donner (born 20 October 1948) is a retired Dutch politician of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) party and jurist. He was granted the honorary title of Minister of State on 21 December 2018.

Donner attended a Gymnasium in Amsterdam from March 1961 until May 1967 and applied at the Free University Amsterdam in June 1967 majoring in Law and obtaining an Bachelor of Laws degree in April 1969 before graduating with an Master of Laws degree in July 1973. Donner applied at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan in September 1973 for a postgraduate education in Law working as a student researcher before obtaining an Juris Doctor degree in July 1976. Donner worked as a civil servant from July 1976 until December 1997 for the department of Legal Affairs of the Ministry of Economic Affairs from August 1976 until March 1981 and as a paralegal for the office of Juridical Support of the House of Representatives from March 1981 until November 1984 and for the department of Public Law of the Ministry of Justice from November 1984 until January 1990. In December 1989 Donner was appointed as a Member of the Scientific Council for Government Policy (WRR), taking office on 1 January 1990. In December 1992 Donner was nominated as Director of the Scientific Council for Government Policy, taking office on 1 January 1993. In December 1997 Donner was nominated as Member of the Council of State, he resigned as Director the same day he was installed as a Member of the Council of State, taking office on 22 December 1997.

After the election of 2002 Donner was appointed as Informateur for the cabinet formation of 2002. Following the cabinet formation Donner was appointed as Minister of Justice in the Cabinet Balkenende I, taking office on 22 July 2002. The Cabinet Balkenende I fell just four months later on 16 October 2002 and continued to serve in a demissionary capacity. After the election of 2003 Donner continued as Minister of Justice in the Cabinet Balkenende II, taking office on 27 May 2003. The Cabinet Balkenende II fell on 30 June 2006 after the Democrats 66 had lost confidence in the functioning of Minister of Integration and Asylum Affairs Rita Verdonk and continued to serve in a demissionary capacity until first cabinet formation of 2006 when it was replaced by the caretaker Cabinet Balkenende III with Donner remaining as Minister of Justice, taking office on 7 July 2006. On 21 September 2006 Donner and Minister of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment Sybilla Dekker resigned following the conclusions of a Dutch Safety Board report into the fire at a detention center at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol that carried political responsibility. Donner was elected as a Member of the House of Representatives after the election of 2006, taking office on 30 November 2006. Following the second cabinet formation of 2006 Donner was appointed as Minister of Social Affairs and Employment in the Cabinet Balkenende IV, taking office on 22 February 2007. The Cabinet Balkenende IV fell on 20 February 2010 after tensions in the coalition over the extension of the Dutch involvement in the Task Force Urozgan mission of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan and continued to serve in a demissionary capacity. In March 2010 Donner announced that he wouldn't stand for the election of 2010. Following the cabinet formation of 2010 Donner was appointed as Minister of the Interior and Kingdom Relations in the Cabinet Rutte I, taking office on 14 October 2010.

In December 2011 Donner was nominated as Vice-President of the Council of State, he resigned as Minister of the Interior and Kingdom Relations on 16 December 2011 and was installed as Vice-President of the Council of State, serving from 1 February 2012 until 1 November 2018. Donner also served as a distinguished professor of Minority rights at the Leiden University holding the Cleveringa Chair from 1 September 2015 until 1 September 2016.

After his retirement Donner occupies numerous seats as a nonprofit director for supervisory boards in the business and industry world and several international non-governmental organizations and research institutes (Institute for Multiparty Democracy, Rijksmuseum van Oudheden, Netherlands Atlantic Association, Royal Netherlands Historical Society and the Carnegie Foundation) and serves on several state commissions on behalf of the government.

Early life

The Donner family has produced a number of Calvinist judges. Piet Hein Donner's father, André Donner, was a judge at the European Court of Justice in 1958-1979 and was part of the government commission that looked into Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld's dealing with the Lockheed Corporation. His grandfather was Jan Donner, who served as Minister of Justice for the Anti-Revolutionary Party in the first cabinet of Dirk Jan de Geer and was later president of the Dutch Supreme Court. His uncle Jan Hein Donner, however, was a chess grandmaster and author. Piet Hein Donner studied Law at the Free University of Amsterdam, obtaining a degree in 1974. During his study, he joined the student society L.A.N.X. in 1968.

Politics

In 2006, recorded a rap song together with Meester G to explain his point of view on the Dutch soft-drug policy. It was a reply to a song by Gerd Leers, Mayor of Maastricht, (with punk band Heideroosjes), which called for a more progressive policy which would not only regulate the selling of soft drugs, but also legalise their production.

On 13 September 2006, Donner was the subject of controversy when he suggested Islamic law could be established in the Netherlands by democratic means. He responded by a clarification that he was not advocating such a scenario but warning against it. That same month, a report of the investigative commission into a fire at Schiphol Airport jail was released, condemning Dutch government officials. Donner, as responsible justice minister, resigned in aftermath of the report's conclusions. His successor was Ernst Hirsch Ballin, who had been justice minister in the third Lubbers cabinet. Four months later, Donner was appointed Minister of Social Affairs and Employment in the new Cabinet, Balkenende IV.