Ad Melkert

Adrianus Petrus Wilhelmus "Ad" Melkert (Dutch: [ˈɑt ˈmɛlkərt] (listen); born 12 February 1956) is a Dutch politician, diplomat, lobbyist, and activist of the Labour Party (PvdA) who served as the leader of the PvdA from 2001 to 2002. He is currently a member of the Council of State and the Social and Economic Council.

Ad Melkert
Ad Melkert in 2002
Member of the Social and Economic Council
Incumbent
Assumed office 1 April 2019
Chair	Mariëtte Hamer
Extraordinary Member of the Council of State
Incumbent
Assumed office 20 January 2016
Vice President	Piet Hein Donner (2016–2018) Thom de Graaf (from 2018)
Special Representative for the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq
In office 7 July 2009 – 1 October 2011
Secretary-General	Ban Ki-moon
Preceded by	Staffan de Mistura
Succeeded by	Martin Kobler
Associate Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme
In office 1 March 2006 – 7 July 2009
Administrator	Kemal Derviş (2006–2006) Helen Clark (2009)
Preceded by	Zéphirin Diabré
Succeeded by	Rebeca Grynspan
Leader of the Labour Party
In office 15 December 2001 – 16 May 2002
Preceded by	Wim Kok
Succeeded by	Wouter Bos
Parliamentary leader in the House of Representatives
In office 13 July 1998 – 16 May 2002
Preceded by	Jacques Wallage
Succeeded by	Jeltje van Nieuwenhoven
Parliamentary group	Labour Party
Minister of Social Affairs and Employment
In office 22 August 1994 – 3 August 1998
Prime Minister	Wim Kok
Preceded by	Bert de Vries
Succeeded by	Klaas de Vries
Member of the House of Representatives
In office 19 May 1998 – 17 October 2002
In office 3 June 1986 – 22 Augustus 1994
Parliamentary group	Labour Party
Personal details
Born	Adrianus Petrus Wilhelmus Melkert (1956-02-12) 12 February 1956 Gouda, Netherlands
Nationality	Dutch
Political party	Labour Party (from 1982)
Other political affiliations	Political Party of Radicals (1974–1981)
Spouse(s)	Mónica León Borquez ​ ( m. 1986; div. 2013)
Children	2 daughters
Residence	The Hague, Netherlands
Alma mater	University of Amsterdam (Bachelor of Social Science, Master of Social Science)
Occupation	Politician · Diplomat · Civil servant · Corporate director · Nonprofit director · Trade association executive · Sport administrator · Lobbyist · Activist

Born in Gouda, Melkert attended the Coornhert Gymnasium before studying Political Science at the University of Amsterdam from 1975 to 1981. During the 1980s he was a political activist for the youth forum of the European Community in Brussels and worked for the charity Oxfam Novib. He was elected to the House of Representatives in 1986 as a member of the Labour Party (PvdA). He was appointed Minister of Social Affairs and Employment in 1994 as a member of the first cabinet of Prime Minister Wim Kok. His term as minister largely focused on reducing unemployment. Melkert returned to the House of Representatives after the 1998 elections, becoming parliamentary leader for the PvdA.

Melkert was viewed as a "rising star" within the PvdA and became party leader in December 2001 after Kok's resignation. The PvdA and the "Purple" coalition governments under Kok were criticized by the rising Pim Fortuyn List and were eventually crippled by the release of a report by the National Institute for War Documentation, which condemned the role of the Dutch government in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre. These factors resulted in a landslide defeat for the PvdA in the 2002 election, with the party losing 22 seats. Melkert accepted responsibility for the defeat and resigned as party leader the day after the election, but remained in the House of Representatives.

In October 2002, Melkert resigned as a member of the House of Representatives after his appointment as an Executive Director of the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund. He resigned from both organisations in 2006 and became an Associate Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme until 2009. He was made Special Representative of the Secretary-General for the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq under Ban Ki-moon from 2009 to 2011. He left the field of international politics after a failed candidacy for Director-General of the International Labour Organization.

Melkert currently serves as a corporate officer in both the public and private sector for various nonprofits, companies, and associations. He was made an Extraordinary Member of the Council of State in 2016, and a member of the Social and Economic Council in 2019 as a representative of the Dutch Hospitals' Association.

Biography

Early life

Adrianus Petrus Wilhelmus Melkert was born into a Roman Catholic middle-class family in Gouderak, a small village situated in the province of South Holland. His father was a barber. Melkert attended a Roman Catholic primary school in Moordrecht until 1968, after which he continued his studies at the Coornhert Gymnasium in Gouda, a state school specialising in the arts. In the final year of his secondary education, he worked for a greengrocer at the local market. Melkert graduated in 1974 and went on to study political science at the University of Amsterdam. During this period he became active within the radical left-wing Christian Political Party of Radicals (PPR) party and served as a member of the board of the youth organisation of the PPR between 1978 and 1980. He went on to become a member of the general board of the Dutch branch of the European Movement, the chairperson of the Council of European National Youth Committees and the chairperson of the Dutch Platform for International Youth Work. In 1979 he was elected into the party board of the PPR, and was 3rd candidate on the PPR's list for the 1979 European Parliament elections. He graduated in 1981 and received the Dutch Society for International Relations prize for best Master's thesis of 1981, the subject of which dealt with the foreign policy of the Den Uyl cabinet.

In 1981 he became general secretary of the youth forum of the European Community in Brussels. In this capacity he attended an illegal youth conference in Chile, then ruled by Pinochet. Meanwhile, tensions within the PPR had escalated. Melkert was a member of the so-called, 'Blues' or 'Godebald' group of radicals, which favoured closer cooperation with the social-democrat Labour Party (PvdA) and the social-liberal Democrats 66 (D66) party. The conflict came to an end in 1981. The 'Reds', who favoured closer cooperation with the left-wing socialist Pacifist Socialist Party (PSP) party and the communist Communist Party of the Netherlands (CPN) party, and the 'Greens', who favoured an independent Green Party, joined forces. Many 'Blues', including Melkert, left the PPR for the PvdA. In 1984 he became director of international affairs at Oxfam Novib, the Dutch branch of Oxfam, and moved to The Hague. He also became a member of the board of the local PvdA branch. In 1986 he published a book on international development in the Netherlands titled: The Next Minister: Development Cooperation with the Cabinet, 1965 – 19?

Politics

In 1996 Melkert was elected into the House of Representatives. In the early years, he was the party's spokesperson on foreign affairs, development cooperation and environmental affairs.

After the 1989 elections he took the post of financial spokesperson of the PvdA, becoming the party's primary spokesperson in the debates on the national budget. Between 1990 and 1994 he was vice-chairman of the parliament's committee on finance.

As an MP, Melkert also participated in several boards of civil society organisations. He was a member of the board of advisers of the Foundation for Communication on Development Cooperation, chairman of the Foundation for Development Cooperation Almere-Port Sudan, and vice-chairman of the Atlantic Committee. Also, he wrote a column in the region newspaper, De Gooi- en Eemlander, that covered Hilversum and the Almere region.

In 1994 Melkert became the Minister of Social Affairs and Employment in the first cabinet of prime minister, Wim Kok. He held responsibility for one of its main goals, which, in the words of those who shaped the cabinet was: Employment, Employment, Employment. As minister, Melkert was known for his work ethic. Each Friday he would fill a postman's cart, which he had bought specifically for that purpose, with dossiers. Upon his return to work the following Monday all the dossiers would have been read. His work ethic was also noticeable in the vast amount of policies and laws he initiated during his tenure as minister.

• In 1995 he initiated a plan to employ 40.000 long-term unemployed. They would be offered a so-called, Melkert-job, mostly in the public sector e.g. tram conductor, high school janitor etc. These jobs were subsidised by the national government.
• In 1995 Melkert also published a note, The Other Side of the Netherlands, in which he proposed several plans to combat silent poverty and social exclusion. This led to the 1997 law: Prevention and Combat of Poverty and Social Exclusion. It changed the social security and the old age pension laws, giving municipalities more ways of offering special social benefits to the poorest citizens.
• In the same year he also wrote the note, Flexibility and Certainty, in which proposals for a more flexible labour market were made.
• In 1997, in collaboration with Frank de Grave, the VVD (Liberal) state secretary of social affairs, he published the note, Working on Security, in which the future of the social security system was researched. It included plans to reform the way old-age pensions were financed.
• In the same year he also initiated a White Cleaners plan, which stimulated the hiring of cleaners by individuals with the added responsibility of paying taxes and social benefits. The plan was intended to combat unemployment of the least educated, and the informal economy.
• In addition, he united all employment laws, such as the Youth Work law, as well as the 'job-pools' into one Law Activation Working-Seeking, which offered municipalities more possibilities to employ the long-term unemployed.

As minister of Social Affairs he often came into conflict with the VVD's (People's Party for Freedom and Democracy) Minister of Finance, Gerrit Zalm.

Following the 1998 general elections in which Melkert was the PvdA's fifth ranking candidate, he became leader of the PvdA in parliament. He also served as chair of the parliament's committee on Information and Security Services. During his period as chairman, the party discipline tightened. The PvdA's image appeared arrogant. A conflict situation between Melkert and Rob van Gijzel, a popular PvdA MP, regarding the post of spokesperson on fraud in the construction sector, resulted in Van Gijzel leaving parliament. Despite concerns regarding Melkert's policy of marginalising and isolating the Socialist Party, he was seen as a competent politician, and was designated to succeed prime minister, Wim Kok, who officially retired as leader of the PvdA in 2001.

Special Representative of the United Nations Ad Melkert and Vice President of the United States Joe Biden during a meeting in the Roosevelt Room at the White House on 5 January 2010.

Elections of 2002

It was widely anticipated that the election would revolve mainly around the question as to whether the Labour Party or the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) would become the largest party and that either Melkert or the Leader of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy Hans Dijkstal were to become the next Prime Minister. Melkert and Dijkstal were the front runners to in the early stages of the campaign but the unexpected arrival of former Sociology professor Pim Fortuyn of the Livable Netherlands (LN) party and later the Pim Fortuyn List (LPF) party turned the polls.

Fortuyn shifted the election issues from Business as usual to Immigration and Integration policies, Healthcare reform and the state of the Public sector. Fortuyn blamed the problems in the country on the Purple cabinets (in which both Melkert and Dijkstal served as ministers) and depicted Melkert and Dijkstal as two bureaucrats who were out of touch with the voter's concerns. During the election Fortuyn accused Melkert of the demonization of his character and personal integrity. In several television debates between Melkert and Fortuyn it became apparent that Melkert was no match for Fortuyn's rather unconventional, though highly charismatic debating style. In the now infamous debate on the night when the results of the 2002 municipal elections were telecast, Fortuyn, having just won the elections in Rotterdam, made a lively, enthusiastic impression, rarely missing an opportunity to mock his opponent who appeared to sit with a degree of discomfort. The incompatibility of the two men dominated the rest of the election campaign. In a one-on-one debate during the programme, Network, their vastly different styles were once again highlighted. To every question posed by the host, Melkert responded with a detailed course of action. With regard to Fortuyn's plans, Melkert demanded 'footnotes!', implying that his opponent's contribution was unrealistic and devoid of detail. There were those who perceived this as arrogance on his part. Steps were taken to redress the possibility of a negative, bureaucratic image and it was revealed that Melkert was an avid follower of Feyenoord football club and enjoyed culinary pursuits: a cookbook was published on his personal website. In May 2006 Melkert revealed to politician-turned-television personality, Paul Rosenmöller, that perhaps by being too entrenched in the confines of the governmental tower, his demeanour had come across as somewhat patronising: something that did not appeal to the voter.

On 6 May 2002 nine days before the election Fortuyn was assassinated by a 32-year-old environmental activist. in Hilversum. A few relatively minor riots erupted in The Hague where Melkert was at the time, urging him to make a quick departure from the city. After receiving death threats, including a loaded gun in the mail, he and his family temporarily went into hiding. Melkert's PvdA lost nearly half its seats, decreasing from 45 to 23 in the 150 seat House of Representatives. The party fell from 1st to 4th place. Melkert resigned as political leader on election night and was replaced by former speaker of the House of Representatives, Jeltje van Nieuwenhoven. Melkert remained in parliament for a short time afterwards. His last major parliamentary debate was on the state of the European Union.

World Bank and the United Nations

In November, 2002 Melkert was appointed executive director of the World Bank. In April 2005 he was a serious candidate for the post of Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). It went, however, to the Turkish economist and politician, Kemel Dervis. In January 2006 Melkert was appointed Associate Administrator of the UNDP. In 2009 Melkert was appointed Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations in Iraq. He was a candidate to succeed Juan Somavía as Director-General of the International Labour Organization but lost to Guy Ryder.[1]

Decorations

Honours
Ribbon bar	Honour	Country	Date	Comment
	Officer of the Order of Orange-Nassau	Netherlands	30 October 1998

References

1. (in Dutch) Melkert geen topman bij ILO, NOS, May 28, 2012

External links

• (in Dutch) Drs. A.P.W. (Ad) Melkert Parlement & Politiek

Party political offices
Preceded by Jacques Wallage	Parliamentary leader of the Labour Party in the House of Representatives 1998–2002	Succeeded by Jeltje van Nieuwenhoven
	Deputy Leader of the Labour Party 1998–2001	Succeeded by Klaas de Vries
		Succeeded by Jeltje van Nieuwenhoven
Preceded by Wim Kok	Leader of the Labour Party 2001–2002	Succeeded by Wouter Bos
Preceded by Wim Kok 1998	Lijsttrekker of the Labour Party 2002	Succeeded by Wouter Bos 2003
Political offices
Preceded by Bert de Vries	Minister of Social Affairs and Employment 1994–1998	Succeeded by Klaas de Vries
Diplomatic posts
Preceded by Pieter Sterk	Executive Director of the World Bank Group 2002–2006	Succeeded by Herman Wijffels
	Executive Director for Benelux, Israel and Eastern Europe of the International Monetary Fund 2002–2006
Preceded by Zéphirin Diabré	Associate Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme 2006–2009	Succeeded by Rebeca Grynspan
Preceded by Staffan de Mistura	Special Representative for the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq 2009–2011	Succeeded by Martin Kobler
Business positions
Preceded by Yvonne van Rooy	Chairman of the Executive Board of the Hospitals association 2018–present	Incumbent
Sporting positions
Preceded by Hui Wang	Chairman of the Supervisory board of ADO Den Haag 2018–present	Incumbent