Marijke van Beukering-Huijbregts

Maria Josefina Theresia Gabriëlle van Beukering-Huijbregts (born December 30, 1971) is a Dutch politician, currently serving as a member of the House of Representatives. She is a member of the social-liberal party Democrats 66 (D66).

In this Dutch name for married women, the marital name is Van Beukering and the birth family name is Huijbregts.

Marijke van Beukering-Huijbregts
Member of the House of Representatives
Incumbent
Assumed office May 20, 2020
Preceded by	Monica den Boer
In office January 22, 2020 – May 13, 2020
Preceded by	Rens Raemakers
Succeeded by	Rens Raemakers
Wethouder in IJsselstein
In office April 29, 2010[1] – September 21, 2017
Member of the IJsselstein municipal council
In office May 2006 – April 2010
Personal details
Born	Maria Josefina Theresia Gabriëlle Huijbregts (1971-12-30) December 30, 1971 Cuijk, North Brabant
Political party	Democrats 66
Spouse(s)	Sander van Beukering
Children	2
Residence	IJsselstein, Utrecht
Education	Schoevers European Secretarial Academy

Before entering politics, she worked as a secretary in the Netherlands and abroad, and she later founded her own company. She became D66's sole member in the IJsselstein municipal council in 2006. When she was re-elected in 2010, Van Beukering-Huijbregts became a wethouder. She resigned in 2017 because of problems with the municipality's cooperation with Montfoort, but was re-appointed shortly after. She stepped down once more in November 2017, and subsequently worked as an independent advisor, mostly for organizations in the public sector.

She filled the seat of MP Rens Raemakers, who was on sick leave, for four months in 2020. Seven days later, she replaced MP Monica den Boer to become a permanent member of the House.

Early life and education

Van Beukering-Huijbregts was born on December 30, 1971 in the town Cuijk in north-east North-Brabant. She attended the Merletcollege for her secondary education and received a havo diploma. In 1989, she started a two-year training at the Schoevers European Secretarial Academy. Van Beukering-Huijbregts has also done a postgraduate training in Public Leadership at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in 2019.[2]

Career

She started her career in 1991 as a secretary and archivist at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, working successively in The Hague; Abidjan, Ivory Coast; and Brussels. In 1999, she got a new job as the assistant of the Head of Mission EU-Programme at the Customs and Fiscal Assistance Office in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo.[2] She ended her foreign career of nine years in 2002, when she started working for a secondment agency for a year.[3][4] She was on assignment as a secretary at Commit Arbo BV, an arbodienst, for one year.[2] She founded a secretarial services company called "SECONDIE" as its sole trader the following year.[2][5]

She became a member of the municipal council of IJsselstein besides her job in May 2006, after her party had received one of the 23 seats during the elections.[6][4] In 2007 and 2008, she also served as director and joint owner of the secretarial services company Co-Support BV.[4]

Wethouder

Van Beukering-Huijbregts was re-elected as the D66's lijsttrekker with 1,334 votes during the March 2010 municipal elections. Her party received three seats in total.[7] She became Wethouder of Society in IJsselstein in April 2010, when D66 became part of the new executive board.[8] Her portfolio included the project multifunctional sport facilities.[8][9] Because of her new position, she stopped her activities at her company and vacated her seat in the council.[2][8] During the 2014 elections, she was again the lijsttrekker of her party, which received a plurality in the council of five seats.[10] She returned to the executive board as Wethouder of People, a position with a portfolio highly similar to her previous one, with as special project "the customer at the center and deregulation".[11][12]

She stepped down on February 8, 2017 simultaneously with her colleague Van den Berg (CDA) because it was revealed that a cooperation between the municipalities IJsselstein and Montfoort had cost €1.5 million more the year before than planned.[13] This resulted in the fall of the executive board. Van Beukering-Huijbregts' departure was planned thirty days later. Both municipalities had started to merge their civil services in 2014 in order to decrease spending on their bureaucracies, but problems had emerged resulting in a need for an estimated €1.7 million to resolve them.[14][15] A motion of no confidence in the municipal council earlier had failed.[16] During the formation of a new executive board, the coalition fell as well, as D66 wanted resigned wethouders to return, while this was unacceptable to the VVD.[17] D66, being the largest party in IJsselstein, formed a new coalition just over two weeks after the fall of the board. Van Beukering-Huijbregts returned as Wethouder of Economic Affairs.[11]

Van Beukering-Huijbregts appeared on place 24 on the party list of D66 during the 2017 Dutch general election. She received 4,971 preferential votes, and her party won nineteen seats – not enough for Van Beukering-Huijbregts to be elected to the House of Representatives.[18]

On September 21, 2017, she resigned from her position as wethouder again together with two others.[19] A report had come out the month before that criticized the information the executive board had given to the municipal council about the cooperation with Montfoort.[20] This had resulted in the CDA leaving the coalition.[21] Van Beukering-Huijbregts resigned after a number of parties with a majority in the council threatened with a motion of no confidence. In turn, the three resigning wethouders declared that the council had become "sour" and was making it impossible for the executive board to govern.[19] D66 subsequently passed the opportunity to form a new executive board to the second biggest party.[22] During the 2018 municipal elections, Van Beukering-Huijbregts was D66's lijstduwer (place 14) and received 273 votes, but she did not become a member of the council.[23]

Subsequent years and MP

Thereafter, she worked as an independent advisor. As such, she has served as a project manager at the Netherlands Red Cross (2018), a member of the supervisory board of social work provider Amfors Groep (2019–2020), a clean air coordinator for the region IJmond employed by the municipality Velsen (2019–2020), and a program manager at Breed Spectrum Aanbieders for child protection in Eemland (2019–2020).[2][3]

On January 22, 2020, Van Beukering-Huijbregts became a temporary member of the House of Representatives, replacing Rens Raemakers who was on sick leave due to an occupational burnout.[24][25] She was the next person in line for a seat of D66 because of her place on the party list during the 2017 general election. Within the D66 caucus, she became the spokesperson in the areas of child protection; juvenile crime; child abuse; the Participation Act; poverty and debt policy; and caregivers.[26] She became part of the parliamentary Committees for Finances; Social Affairs and Employment; and Health, Welfare and Sport as well as temporary member of the Committee for Petitions and Citizens' Initiatives.[2]

Raemakers returned to the House on May 13, 2020, ending Van Beukering-Huijbregt's membership of the body.[27] However, a week later, D66 MP Monica den Boer left the House to take a job as professor.[28] Van Beukering-Huijbregts succeeded her and thus became a permanent member of the lower house.[27] Her portfolio changed slightly: it now includes security, but excludes juvenile issues.[26] She is a permanent member of the Committees for Justice and Security and for Social Affairs and Employment, besides being a temporary member of the Committees for the Interior and for Petitions and Citizens' Initiatives.[2]

Sidelines

Besides her work as a politician, she has been serving as the chair of the National Association First-Aid since May 2014.[29][30] She did a training to become a first-aid instructor at the Dutch Organization Teachers First-Aid in Tilburg in 2005.[2] Before being appointed chairwoman, she worked at the organization as its secretary (2004–2011) and subsequently as an advisor to the executive committee.[3][31] She has written a first-aid manual together with Nico Schouten called EHBO Leren & Doen ("First-Aid Learning & Doing"), that was published in 2012. A revised edition came out in 2016.[32] Besides, she has been a member of the supervisory board of the "Prins Hendrik Fonds", an organization that distributes first aid subsidies, since 2017.[33]

Personal life

Van Beukering-Huijbregts is married to Sander van Beukering and has two children.[34] She has been living in IJsselstein since her return to the Netherlands from Sarajevo. She plays tennis and has been the chair of the tennis club IJTC Groenvliet since November 2017.[3][4]

Decorations

• Order of Orange-Nassau
  • Knight (July 3, 2020)[35]

References

1. "Raadsvergadering 29 april 2010". IJsselstein (in Dutch). Retrieved 9 February 2020.
2. "Biografie, onderwijs en loopbaan van Marijke van Beukering-Huijbregts". Tweede Kamer (in Dutch). Retrieved 28 July 2020.
3. "M.J.T.G. (Marijke) van Beukering-Huijbregts". Parlement.com (in Dutch). Parlementair Documentatie Centrum. Retrieved 30 January 2020.
4. "Contouren voor een zelfbewuste stad - Coalitieakkoord 2010-2014" (PDF). IJsselstein (in Dutch). 22 April 2010. p. 17. Retrieved 9 February 2020.
5. "Over Marijke". Secondie (in Dutch). Retrieved 31 January 2020.
6. "Gemeenteraad 7 maart 2006". Kiesraad (in Dutch). Retrieved 31 January 2020.
7. "Gemeenteraad 3 maart 2010". Kiesraad (in Dutch). Retrieved 9 February 2020.
8. "IJsselsteins college rond". RTV Utrecht (in Dutch). 19 April 2010. Retrieved 2 February 2020.
9. "Kandidaat wethouders 2014-2018" (PDF). IJsselstein (in Dutch). Retrieved 8 February 2020.
10. "Wethouder en fractie D66 bovenaan lijst verkiezingen". D66 IJsselstein (Press release) (in Dutch). 24 November 2013. Retrieved 8 February 2020.
11. "Coalitieakkoord IJsselstein: doorpakken met samenwerking Montfoort". RTV Utrecht (in Dutch). 25 February 2017. Retrieved 2 February 2020.
12. "De drempel laag, de lat hoog! - Bestuursovereenkomst Raadsperiode 2014 - 2018 IJsselstein" (PDF). IJsselstein (in Dutch). p. 13. Retrieved 9 February 2020.
13. Bekkering, Peter (10 February 2017). "Verzet tegen terugkeer wethouder Van Beukering". Algemeen Dagblad (in Dutch). Retrieved 21 January 2020.
14. "College IJsselstein gevallen na megatekort op samenwerking Montfoort". RTV Utrecht (in Dutch). 8 February 2017. Retrieved 2 February 2020.
15. "Reconstructie: bonnetjes kosten college IJsselstein de kop". RTV Utrecht (in Dutch). 9 February 2017. Retrieved 2 February 2020.
16. "College IJsselstein door het stof vanwege kostbare samenwerking Montfoort". RTV Utrecht (in Dutch). 27 January 2017. Retrieved 2 February 2020.
17. "Coalitie IJsselstein gevallen, verwijten vliegen over tafel". RTV Utrecht (in Dutch). 15 February 2017. Retrieved 2 February 2020.
18. "Uitslag Tweede Kamerverkiezing 2017 (getekend exemplaar)" (PDF). Kiesraad (in Dutch). 21 March 2017. pp. 114 and 115. Retrieved 30 January 2020.
19. "Opgestapte wethouders IJsselstein halen hard uit: "De gemeenteraad is zuur"". RTV Utrecht (in Dutch). 21 September 2017. Retrieved 2 February 2020.
20. "Montfoort en IJsselstein onjuist geïnformeerd". RTV Utrecht (in Dutch). 25 August 2017. Retrieved 2 February 2020.
21. "CDA stapt uit college IJsselstein om samenwerking met Montfoort". RTV Utrecht (in Dutch). 31 August 2017. Retrieved 2 February 2020.
22. "Politieke crisis IJsselstein: LDIJ probeert nieuw college te smeden". RTV Utrecht (in Dutch). 22 September 2017. Retrieved 2 February 2020.
23. "Stemmen - Verkiezing Gemeenteraad 2018" (PDF). IJsselstein (in Dutch). p. 1. Retrieved 8 February 2020.
24. "Beëdiging Marijke van Beukering". Tweede Kamer (Press release) (in Dutch). Retrieved 30 January 2020.
25. "D66-Kamerlid Raemakers uit de running door burn-out". Nederlandse Omroep Stichting (in Dutch). 14 January 2020. Retrieved 31 January 2020.
26. "Marijke van Beukering". D66 (in Dutch). Retrieved 28 July 2020.
27. "Beëdiging en afscheid Kamerleden". Tweede Kamer (Press release) (in Dutch). 20 May 2020. Retrieved 28 July 2020.
28. "Afscheid D66-Kamerlid Monica den Boer". Tweede Kamer (Press release) (in Dutch). 19 May 2020. Retrieved 28 July 2020.
29. "Bestuur". Nationale Bond EHBO (in Dutch). Retrieved 30 January 2020.
30. @EHBO_NAT_BOND (10 May 2014). "Marijke van Beukering, wethouder te IJsselstein, is de nieuwe voorzitter. Zij was tot 2010 secretaris" (Tweet) (in Dutch). Retrieved 30 January 2020 – via Twitter.
31. "Lintjes in IJsselstein". IJsselstein (Press release) (in Dutch). 24 April 2020. Retrieved 28 July 2020.
32. "EHBO Leren & Doen". Bol.com (in Dutch). Retrieved 30 January 2020.
33. "Jaarverslag 2018". Prins Hendrik Fonds (in Dutch). Retrieved 28 July 2020.
34. "Voormalig wethouder in IJsselstein Van Beukering wordt kamerlid". D66 IJsselstein (Press release) (in Dutch). 14 January 2020. Retrieved 9 February 2020.
35. "Onderscheiding voor Marijke van Beukering". Prins Hendrik Fonds (Press release) (in Dutch). 4 July 2020. Retrieved 28 July 2020.