28 Facts About Joris Thijssen

Joris Thijssen was born on 19 April 1974 and is a Dutch environmental activist and politician.

Joris Thijssen participated in numerous protest actions, leading to a number of arrests and a criminal record.

Joris Thijssen left his job to participate in the 2021 general election, in which he was elected to the House of Representatives.

Joris Thijssen was born in 1974 in the Gelderland city of Arnhem.

Joris Thijssen was a member of the student rowing club DSR Proteus-Eretes.

Joris Thijssen traveled around the world after his second year of study.

Joris Thijssen later studied philosophy and anthropology at the University of Amsterdam and Leiden University, and he has received an executive MBA degree from Erasmus University Rotterdam.

Joris Thijssen applied for a job as an astronaut at the ESA in 2008, but was not chosen.

Joris Thijssen joined the environmental organization Greenpeace as a volunteer in the second half of the 1990s.

Joris Thijssen campaigned against nuclear energy and researched the melting of glaciers.

In July 2002, Joris Thijssen managed to enter the grounds of palace Huis ten Bosch, where the first Balkenende cabinet was presented.

The Royal Marechaussee had let Joris Thijssen, who was dressed up and arrived in the back seat of a rental car, in after his chauffeur had said that he was the new environmental minister.

Two months later, on the day after, Joris Thijssen illegally entered the plenary hall of the House of Representatives during budget debates.

Joris Thijssen was escorted out and arrested before he could chain himself and speak.

Joris Thijssen was released form his cell later that day.

Joris Thijssen served as climate and energy campaign leader at Greenpeace Netherlands until he moved to China in 2007 to work as an advisor at the organization's Beijing office for a year.

Joris Thijssen had assisted two activists who had entered a gala dinner for foreign dignitaries at Christiansborg Palace and had shown banners in protest.

Joris Thijssen again tried to make an appearance as environmental minister during the presentation of the first Rutte cabinet in 2010 at Huis ten Bosch.

Joris Thijssen served as Greenpeace's negotiator for the Social and Economic Council's 2013, in which 47 Dutch organizations including the government agreed to make the energy supply more sustainable.

Joris Thijssen became executive director of Greenpeace Netherlands on 1 September 2016 together with Anna Schoemakers.

Joris Thijssen's main focus was Dutch politics and corporations, while Schoemakers was more involved with foreign issues.

Joris Thijssen said in an interview that he believed that the measures would not be sufficient to halt "dangerous climate change".

Joris Thijssen resigned from his position at Greenpeace as soon as it was announced in November 2020 that he would participate in the 2021 general election.

Joris Thijssen ran for member of parliament in the 2021 general election, being placed sixth on the Labour Party's party list.

Joris Thijssen became his party's spokesperson for climate, energy, agriculture, nature, foreign trade, and development cooperation.

Joris Thijssen opposed investing in nuclear energy, calling it a distraction from the actual mitigation of climate change due to high costs and the resulting radioactive waste.

Joris Thijssen subsequently proposed that debts of those discontinuing farmers would be partly written off by Rabobank, the largest agricultural financier.

Joris Thijssen lives in the North Holland village Muiderberg with his girlfriend and two sons, and he is a vegetarian.