1. Femke Halsema is the first woman to hold the position on a non-interim basis.
44 Facts About Femke Halsema
1. 2.
Femke Halsema previously was a member of the House of Representatives for the leftist green party, GroenLinks from 1998 to 2011, and served as the party's parliamentary leader from 2002 to 2010.
3.
Femke Halsema's father W Halsema was a sport teacher and director of the municipal service for physical education, sport and recreation of Enschede.
4.
Femke Halsema's mother was a member of the Dutch Social Insurance Advisory Board.
5.
Femke Halsema's mother Olga Margaretha Bertha Fles was born in 1941 in Velsen-Driehuis near harbour town IJmuiden north of Amsterdam.
6.
Femke Halsema referred to some families with the surname Fles in the region Enschede being Jewish.
7.
In 1983, Femke Halsema graduated from the Kottenpark-college in Enschede with a Havo-diploma.
8.
Femke Halsema then started studying general social sciences at Utrecht University, specialising in criminology.
9.
Femke Halsema was seen as a rising talent in the Labour Party.
10.
Femke Halsema joined the programme committee of the Labour Party for the 1998 election.
11.
Femke Halsema published the book Land in zicht: een cultuurpolitieke benadering van de Ruimtelijke Ordening with Maarten Hajer.
12.
Femke Halsema was asked to be a candidate for the Labour Party in the 1998 election.
13.
Femke Halsema was the third candidate on the list, making her the highest new candidate and practically guaranteed her a seat in the House.
14.
Femke Halsema became well known due to her opposition to the tougher migration law proposed by Job Cohen.
15.
Femke Halsema became vice-chair of the parliamentary party and among others spoke for the party in the first debate with the First Balkenende cabinet.
16.
Femke Halsema asked Halsema to succeed him, and she immediately agreed.
17.
Between October 2003 and January 2004, Femke Halsema was on maternity leave.
18.
Femke Halsema claimed that her party was the last "left liberal party in the Netherlands".
19.
Femke Halsema called for increased cooperation with the Socialist Party, the Labour Party and GroenLinks, aiming at a left-wing majority government after the 2007 election.
20.
Femke Halsema asked Labour Party leader Wouter Bos to speak out in favour of such a cabinet, but he refused in order to allow for a possible coalition of the Labour Party and the Christian Democratic Appeal.
21.
The party, under Femke Halsema, negotiated with the VVD, the Labour Party and D66 to reach agreement on a new "Purple Plus"-government, but the negotiations failed.
22.
On 17 December 2010, Femke Halsema announced that she would leave parliament and that Jolande Sap was elected as the new leader of GroenLinks.
23.
On 27 June 2018, Femke Halsema was appointed Mayor of Amsterdam and began serving a six-year term on 12 July 2018.
24.
Femke Halsema is the first woman to hold the position fully as Guusje ter Horst and Kajsa Ollongren held the position previously in an ad interim manner.
25.
Femke Halsema was criticised because of the crowd gathering and the 1.5 meter safety issue from COVID-19, it was impossible to manage the 1.5 meter rule between the protesting citizens which was a must for safety reasons.
26.
Femke Halsema was criticised on the Dutch news by a lot of people in the medical field for not taking action and lack of responsibility.
27.
On 1 July 2021, Femke Halsema apologised for the city's involvement in the Atlantic slave trade.
28.
In November 2024, Femke Halsema expressed regret over her prior labeling of the November 2024 Amsterdam riots as a "pogrom".
29.
Femke Halsema said that the term pogrom is being used as propaganda by Dutch politicians to discriminate against Moroccans and Muslims.
30.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar criticised Femke Halsema, saying that her comment was "utterly unacceptable".
31.
Immediately after her political career, Femke Halsema joined De Volkskrant, for which she wrote number of articles and columns in 2011 and 2012.
32.
Femke Halsema researched the meaning of social media for human rights and democracy.
33.
Femke Halsema succeeded Martin van Rijn, who had become junior minister of Health.
34.
The committee Femke Halsema found that the board had acted within the law but that their behaviour was not desirable.
35.
Since 2011, Femke Halsema has been President-Commissioner at WPG Uitgevers, which is among other responsible for the publisher De Bezige Bij, Vrij Nederland and Voetbal International.
36.
Since 2015 Femke Halsema has been chair for the Trade Organisation for Healthcare for the Handicapped.
37.
Additionally, Femke Halsema has been a member of the executive of a number of non-profits: between 2011 and 2017 she was chair of the board of Stichting Vluchteling.
38.
In 2014, Femke Halsema made the six-part documentary series Seks en de Zonde with Hassnae Bouazza about women in the Islamic world.
39.
Femke Halsema interviewed activists Veena Malik and Souad al-Shammary for this.
40.
Femke Halsema wants to apply this concept especially to the multicultural society and rule of law, where she seeks to reduce the influence of government.
41.
Femke Halsema wants to apply this concept especially to the economy, the welfare state and the environment, where the government should take more action.
42.
Femke Halsema proposes that the main goal of the welfare state should be the emancipation of citizens from poverty.
43.
Femke Halsema called for the implementation of a partial basic income.
44.
Oey made among others the film De Leugen in which Femke Halsema participated amongst others by singing.