13 Facts About Gerrit Braks

Gerardus Johannes Maria "Gerrit" Braks was a Dutch politician of the defunct Catholic People's Party and later the Christian Democratic Appeal party and agronomist.

Gerrit Braks worked as a agronomist and agricultural engineer in Eindhoven from January 1966 until April 1970 and as a civil servant for the Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development of the European Commission from April 1970 until June 1977.

Gerrit Braks was elected as a Member of the House of Representatives after the election of 1977, taking office on 8 June 1977.

Gerrit Braks served as acting Minister of Education and Sciences from 14 September 1989 until 7 November 1989 following the election of Wim Deetman as Speaker of the House of Representatives.

On 18 September 1990 Gerrit Braks resigned after the Labour Party the coalition partner in the cabinet had lost confidence in the functioning of Gerrit Braks.

Gerrit Braks remained active in national politics, and became active in the public sector and occupied numerous seats as a nonprofit director on several boards of directors and supervisory boards and worked as media administrator for the public broadcaster Catholic Radio Broadcasting serving as Chairman of the Supervisory board from 1 May 1991 until 10 July 1996.

Gerrit Braks was elected as a Member of the Senate after the Senate election of 1991, taking office on 11 June 1991.

Gerrit Braks was nominated as President of the Senate following the retirement of Frits Korthals Altes, taking office on 2 October 2001.

In February 2003 Gerrit Braks announced his retirement from national politics and that he wouldn't stand for the Senate election of 2003 and continued to serve until the end of the parliamentary term on 10 June 2003.

Gerrit Braks was known for his abilities as a debater and policy wonk.

Gerrit Braks continued to comment on political affairs until his death at the age of 84.

Gerrit Braks was invested as a Commander in the Order of the Netherlands Lion and as a Knight of the Order of Orange-Nassau.

Gerrit Braks received the Jacoba van Beierenprijs in 1990, an honorary badge from the Wageningen University and Research Centre in 1993 and was an honorary citizen of the Dutch province of North Brabant.