Maria Cornelia Frederika "Rita" Verdonk was born on 18 October 1955 and is a Dutch politician of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy and later founder of the Proud of the Netherlands party and businesswoman.
48 Facts About Rita Verdonk
2.
Rita Verdonk worked as a civil servant for the Ministry of Justice from September 1983 until October 1996 and as director of the department of State Security of the Domestic Security Service from October 1996 until November 1999.
3.
Rita Verdonk worked as a management consultant for KPMG and Atos from November 1999 until May 2003.
4.
Rita Verdonk lost the leadership election to incumbent State Secretary for Education, Culture and Science Mark Rutte on May 31,2006.
5.
Rita Verdonk continued to serve in a demissionary capacity until the cabinet was replaced by the caretaker Cabinet Balkenende III with Rita Verdonk continuing as Minister for Integration and Asylum Affairs, taking office on 7 July 2006.
6.
Rita Verdonk served as acting Minister of Justice from 21 September 2006 until 22 September 2006 following the resignation of Piet Hein Donner.
7.
Rita Verdonk was elected as a Member of the House of Representatives after the election of 2006, taking office on 30 November 2006.
8.
On 14 September 2007 Rita Verdonk was expelled from the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy parliamentary group in the House of Representatives following months of tensions with Leader and Parliamentary leader Rutte and continued to serve in the House of Representatives as an Independent.
9.
Rita Verdonk retired from active politics and became active in the private sector and public sector and occupied numerous seats as a corporate director and nonprofit director on several boards of directors and supervisory boards and worked as a political consultant and management consultant.
10.
Maria Cornelia Frederika Rita Verdonk was born on 18 October 1955 in Utrecht.
11.
Rita Verdonk attended High School at Utrecht's Niels Stensen College at the atheneum level.
12.
Rita Verdonk went on to study sociology at the Radboud University in Nijmegen, which at the time was considered left-wing, and specialized in the sociology of organisations and criminology.
13.
Rita Verdonk was member of a sub-faculty board of the university and a member of the activist group Bond voor Wetsovertreders which had close ties with the far-left Pacifist Socialist Party.
14.
Rita Verdonk participated in a non-violent human blockade during the Pierson riots of 1981, when plans for housing demolition to make room for a parking lot triggered violent civil unrest.
15.
Some observed that Rita Verdonk had never held outspoken left-wing ideals and criticized communist regimes; others hypothesized that it was part of a growing-up phase; a former treasurer of the BWO suspected that Rita Verdonk had been a police informer all those years.
16.
In 2003, Rita Verdonk was appointed Minister for Integration and Immigration.
17.
Rita Verdonk soon developed a reputation for toughness and outspokenness, with her uncompromising immigration policies earning her the nickname IJzeren Rita.
18.
In June 2004 Rita Verdonk was smeared with ketchup by two females protestors in opposition to her stance on immigration as part of a "playful protest", for which they got 11 days of prisontime.
19.
Rita Verdonk said Verdonk has disqualified herself from being the prime candidate for the VVD in the coming elections.
20.
The result of the debate was that Rita Verdonk promised to have another look at the case and see if it was possible for Hirsi Ali to keep her citizenship.
21.
On 27 June 2006 Rita Verdonk informed parliament of her decision to allow MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali to keep her Dutch passport after all.
22.
Van Beek, an MP for the VVD, said after the debate that it would be almost unthinkable that if Rita Verdonk resigned, the cabinet would stay intact, as one of the coalition partners of the cabinet had lost its confidence in the minister.
23.
D66, feeling dissatisfied that minister Rita Verdonk did not resign following the debate, withdrew its support for the cabinet.
24.
Rita Verdonk claimed this motion amounted to a de facto amnesty and affirmed her well-known stance: any amnesty was unenforceable.
25.
Rita Verdonk declared expulsions would continue after the debate, before cabinet could issue an official statement the next day.
26.
Rita Verdonk refused to postpone those expulsions for another 24 hours until a new debate could take place the next day.
27.
In exchange, Rita Verdonk added Hirsch Ballin's justice department responsibilities over youth care, prevention and probation to her portfolio.
28.
On 22 February 2007 Rita Verdonk stood down as minister when the fourth cabinet Balkenende was installed.
29.
Rita Verdonk's portfolios were taken over by Ella Vogelaar and Nebahat Albayrak.
30.
Minister Rita Verdonk was called to parliament for the following issues:.
31.
Rita Verdonk strictly applied the Alien Integration Act of 1998, which was introduced by Job Cohen, the social democratic State Secretary for Justice in the Cabinet Kok II.
32.
On 4 April 2006, Rita Verdonk announced her ambition to become political leader and to succeed Jozias van Aartsen as the lijsttrekker of the VVD for the coming elections, at the time expected to be held 2006.
33.
Rita Verdonk was advised by Kay van de Linde, who had been part of anti-immigration politician Pim Fortuyn's 2002 election campaign, which was cut short by his assassination on 6 May of that year.
34.
Rita Verdonk's opponents said that several of her statements and policies seemed to exploit xenophobic emotions in the country.
35.
De Telegraaf reported on 23 June 2006 that Rita Verdonk discussed policies with Marco Pastors of Leefbaar Rotterdam.
36.
The news report fueled fears that Rita Verdonk might leave the VVD in order to form a new right-wing political party allied with Leefbaar Rotterdam and Lijst Pim Fortuyn.
37.
Rita Verdonk renewed her desire to become party leader but said she would for the present remain loyal to Rutte.
38.
Chances of Rita Verdonk to become party leader decreased with this action, described as an "attempted coup" by media and party members.
39.
On 20 January 2007 NRC Handelsblad profiled Rita Verdonk, observing that her election-campaign team was not resolved.
40.
From November 2006 until September 2007, Rita Verdonk served as member of parliament for the VVD in the opposition benches as the education specialist.
41.
On 13 September 2007, Rita Verdonk criticised the direction of the VVD again.
42.
Rita Verdonk said that the VVD was "invisible" in the debate about immigration.
43.
Later that afternoon, news reports confirmed that Rita Verdonk had been expelled.
44.
Rutte said that "Rita Verdonk had damaged the reputation of the VVD due to remarks in the media far too often".
45.
Rita Verdonk said she would continue in the House of Representatives and that she would not give up her seat.
46.
Rita Verdonk confirmed that she would not join the Partij voor de Vrijheid.
47.
The next day, Rita Verdonk said that she still needed some more time to think over her decision again, but Rutte declined this, and she was formally expelled from the parliamentary faction of the VVD on 14 September 2007.
48.
Rita Verdonk announced that she would leave the party but stay in Parliament.