Jozias Van Aartsen

Jozias Johannes van Aartsen (born December 25, 1947) is a Dutch politician of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD). He is the Mayor of The Hague since March 27, 2008. He previously served as the Minister of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality from August 22, 1994 until August 3, 1998 in the Cabinet Kok I. He became a Member of the House of Representatives for a short periode serving from May 19, 1998 until August 3, 1998 following the Dutch general election of 1998. He served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs from August 3, 1998 until July 22, 2002 in the Cabinet Kok II. He returned to the Member of the House of Representatives serving from May 23, 2002 until November 30, 2006, when the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy Party leader and Parliamentary leader in the House of Representatives Gerrit Zalm became Minister of Finance and Deputy Prime Minister in the Cabinet Balkenende II, Van Aartsen became the Parliamentary leader serving from May 27, 2003 until March 8, 2006. After disagreeing with Zalm about his position that the Party leader shouldn't be a member of the cabinet unless that person is the Prime Minister, the Parliamentary leader in the House of Representatives should be the Party leader. After months of discussions and arguing, Van Aartsen took over as Party leader from Zalm in all but name. After poor results in the Dutch municipal elections of 2006 he stepped down as Parliamentary leader and was temporally succeeded by Willibrord van Beek, until the election of Mark Rutte as the new Parliamentary leader and Party leader.In August 2006 Van Aartsen announced he would not run as a candidate for the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy for the upcoming Dutch general election of 2006.In 2008 he was nominated to succeed Wim Deetman as Mayor of The Hague and took office on March 27, 2008.