Ad Melkert

Adrianus Petrus Wilhelmus "Ad" Melkert (Dutch: [ˈɑt ˈmɛlkərt] ( listen); February 12, 1956) is a Dutch politician of the Labour Party (PvdA). He served as a Member of the House of Representatives from June 3, 1986 until August 22, 1994 when he became Minister of Social Affairs and Employment in the Cabinet Kok I following the Dutch general election of 1994. At the end of the parliamentary period, he was not included in the Cabinet Kok II after the Dutch general election of 1998 by his own request, as he wanted to focus his energies on his candidacy to succeed Wim Kok as the next Party leader of the Labour Party. Melkert returned to the House of Representatives on July 13, 1998 and became the Parliamentary leader of the Labour Party in the House of Representatives on July 13, 1998 and became the presumed de facto next party leader in all but name. He was elected the official party leader on December 15, 2001 and became the lijsttrekker for the Dutch general election of 2002. Melkert and People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) leader Hans Dijkstal were the front runners to become the next Prime Minister, but the unexpected arrival of Pim Fortuyn of Livable Netherlands (LN) and later the Pim Fortuyn List (LPF), turned the polls. Fortuyn blamed the problems in the country on the Purple cabinets (in which both Melkert and Dijkstal served as ministers). Fortuyn depicted Melkert and Dijkstal as two bureaucrats who didn't understand the feelings and problems among the population. After a heated campaign a mere days before the election, Fortuyn was assassinated in Hilversum. The Labour Party suffered a landslide defeat in the election losing 23 seats, Melkert was blamed for the defeat primary because of his technocratic leadership in contrast to the more charismatic Fortuyn. During the election Fortuyn accused him with demonization, and after Fortuyn's assassination Melkert received death threats and sequentially left national politics. He resigned as party leader and parliamentary leader on May 16, 2002 and gave up his seat in the House of Representatives on October 17, 2002.

Following his career in Dutch politics, he worked at the World Bank and the United Nations.

Biography

Early life

Adrianus Petrus Wilhelmus Melkert was born into a 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 PPR party, and served as a member of the board of the Political Youth Contact, which was the youth organisation of the PPR between 1978 and 1980. He continued 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 PvdA and the social-liberal D66 party. The conflict came to an end in 1981. The 'Reds', who favoured closer cooperation with the left-wing socialist PSP party and the communist CPN party, and the 'Greens', who favoured an independent Green Party, joined forces. Many 'Blues', including Melkert, left the PPR for the Labour Party. In 1984 he became director of international affairs at 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 Ad 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 advisors 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. Furthermore, he had a column in the local newspaper, Gooi- en Eemlander, which 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.

Elections of 2002

Melkert became the PvdA's top candidate for the 2002 elections. It was widely anticipated that either he or the leader of the VVD, Hans Dijkstal, would become the next prime minister, and that the elections would revolve around the question as to whether the conservative liberal VVD or the PvdA would become the largest party.

However, the elections took an unexpected turn when Pim Fortuyn, a flamboyant populist, entered the political arena. Focusing his campaign on issues of immigration, integration and the state of the public sector, Fortuyn was intent on exposing the PvdA as being responsible for what he termed, Eight years of Purple ruin – referring to the red and blue combination of the social and liberal coalition that had governed the Netherlands during the preceding eight years. 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 Pim Fortuyn was assassinated by a 32-year old environmental activist. 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. Ad 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.

International Political Life

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 Ad 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.

Decorations

• Order of Oranje-Nassau
  • Officer (October 30, 1998)

References

External links

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

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