10 Facts About Marco Pastors

Marcus Gerhardus Theodorus Pastors was born on 10 September 1965 and is a Dutch civil servant and former politician.

Marco Pastors obtained a degree in economics from Erasmus University in 1989 and from 1990 to 1993 he worked for OV-studentenkaart BV then headed by Pim Fortuyn, his future political ally.

Marco Pastors then went on to work for Getronics and later on for Zenc of which he was a co-founder.

Marco Pastors started his political career in January 2002 when his formed boss Fortuyn was elected leader of Livable Rotterdam.

Marco Pastors was given the responsibility for infrastructure and housing as an alderman and he focused on improving living conditions in some of the Rotterdam slum areas.

Marco Pastors introduced measures which allowed tenants to buy their house and introduced legislation banning prospective residents without a proper income or job prospects given the high unemployment and poverty in some residential area's.

Marco Pastors was critical of the proliferation of mosques, the erection of minarets and was opposed to practises associated with new immigrants with a Muslim background such as honor killings, polygamy, forced marriage and suppression of women.

In 2006 Marco Pastors started a new political party called Een NL together with Joost Eerdmans formerly a member of the Lijst Pim Fortuyn that participated in the 2006 Dutch general election.

Many of his voters believed Marco Pastors to be "the real heir" to Pim Fortuyn.

Marco Pastors criticized customs such as arranged marriages, lack of tolerance of homosexuality and lack of freedom to renounce the Islamic faith.