Joris Thijssen
Member of the House of Representatives
Assumed office
31 March 2021
Personal details
Born
J. Thijssen

(1974-04-19) 19 April 1974
Arnhem, Netherlands
Political partyLabour Party
Children2
Alma mater

Joris Thijssen (born 19 April 1974) is a Dutch environmental activist and politician. After studying aerospace engineering, he started working for the environmental organization Greenpeace. He participated in numerous protest actions, leading to a number of arrests and a criminal record.[1] In 2016, he became co-director of Greenpeace Netherlands. He left his job to participate in the 2021 general election, in which he was elected to the House of Representatives. There, he represents the Labour Party.

Early life and education

He was born in 1974 in the Gelderland city of Arnhem. His father ran a scooter importing business. Thijssen studied aerospace engineering at Delft University of Technology starting in 1992, graduating cum laude in 2000.[2][3][4][5] He was a member of the student rowing club DSR Proteus-Eretes.[4] He traveled around the world after his second year of study. According to Thijssen, this made him think about how humans are affecting the planet.[1] For his thesis about landing a lunar lander on the south pole, he interned at the European Space Agency (ESA) for two years under the supervision of astronaut Wubbo Ockels.[4][6] Thijssen's father died when Joris was twenty years old.[7] He later also studied philosophy and anthropology at the University of Amsterdam and Leiden University, and he has received an executive MBA degree from Erasmus University Rotterdam.[2]

He applied for a job as an astronaut at the ESA in 2008, but was not chosen.[1]

Greenpeace

Thijssen joined the environmental organization Greenpeace as a volunteer in the second half of the 1990s.[8] In 1997, he went to Normandy with future politician Diederik Samson to measure the level of radioactivity at a discharge pipe from a boat using kites.[1][9] After he completed his studies, he became a paid employee at the organization. He campaigned against nuclear energy and researched the melting of glaciers.[10]

In July 2002, Thijssen managed to enter the grounds of palace Huis ten Bosch, where the first Balkenende cabinet was presented. In protest, he held up a banner saying "the Minister of Environment reports" before being removed from the property by guards ten minutes later. The Royal Marechaussee had let Thijssen, who was dressed up and arrived in the back seat of a rental car, in after his chauffeur had said that he was the new environmental minister.[11] Two months later, on the day after Prinsjesdag, Thijssen illegally entered the plenary hall of the House of Representatives during budget debates. He was escorted out and arrested before he could chain himself and speak. He was released form his cell later that day.[12] He was not prosecuted for those actions after reaching a settlement of €250.[13]

Thijssen served as climate and energy campaign leader at Greenpeace Netherlands until he moved to China in 2007 to work as an advisor at the organization's Beijing office for a year.[3][4] Subsequently, he held a position at Greenpeace International for two years, coordinating forty regional offices and assisting their campaigns.[4][14] In 2009–10, Thijssen spent twenty days in the Danish Vestre Prison in remand after he and three other activists had been arrested for trespassing on government property and forgery during the Copenhagen Summit. He had assisted two activists who had entered a gala dinner for foreign dignitaries at Christiansborg Palace and had shown banners in protest.[15][16] He later received a two-week suspended sentence but was also given €2,400 in damages for his earlier detention.[17][18]

After this, Thijssen returned to Greenpeace Netherlands to serve as campaign director and later as program director.[1][4] He again tried to make an appearance as environmental minister during the presentation of the first Rutte cabinet in 2010 at Huis ten Bosch. This time, he failed to set foot on the premises, and he was detained for a number of hours after claiming to be the Minister of Defence and showing his banner.[19] Thijssen also served as Greenpeace's negotiator for the Social and Economic Council's 2013 Energieakkoord (Energy accord), in which 47 Dutch organizations including the government agreed to make the energy supply more sustainable.[20][21]

Co-director (2016–2020)

Thijssen became executive director of Greenpeace Netherlands on 1 September 2016 together with Anna Schoemakers. They succeeded Sylvia Borren.[22] Thijssen's main focus was Dutch politics and corporations, while Schoemakers was more involved with foreign issues.[23] A week after being promoted, Thijssen, Schoemakers, and another activist lay in hammocks that were attached to a cable between two wind turbines at the Eemshaven in order to prevent a ship carrying coal from reaching a coal power plant.[24] The following month, Thijssen participated in a Dutch climate conference that was held after the signing of the Paris Agreement to discuss its implementation. There, he was noted for shaking the hand of the CEO of Royal Dutch Shell Netherlands, Marjan van Loon.[25]

Under Thijssen's and Schoemakers's leadership, Greenpeace Netherlands raised its budget to recruit donors, as that number had fallen by over a fifth in the five-year period preceding 2018.[26] Greenpeace was also one of the participants in the negotiations for the Dutch climate accord in 2018. Weeks before the accord's planned completion, Greenpeace and three other environmental organizations threatened to not sign it.[27] In December – on the day before it was offered to the cabinet – the organizations announced definitively that they would not support the draft agreement.[28] Thijssen said in an interview that he believed that the measures would not be sufficient to halt "dangerous climate change". Furthermore, he opposed the accord's carbon capture and storage, and he believed that people were paying too much relative to corporations to mitigate climate change.[3]

He resigned from his position at Greenpeace as soon as it was announced in November 2020 that he would participate in the 2021 general election. The reason for his departure was to maintain the political neutrality of Greenpeace.[8]

Politics

Thijssen ran for member of parliament in the 2021 general election, being placed sixth on the Labour Party's party list.[29] He was elected with 2,666 preference votes and was sworn into the House on 31 March.[30] Thijssen is his party's spokesperson for climate, energy, agriculture, nature, foreign trade, and development cooperation.[31] He is also on the parliamentary Building Advice Committee and the Committees for Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality; for Defence; for Economic Affairs and Climate Policy; for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation; and for Infrastructure and Water Management.[2] Thijssen opposed investing in nuclear energy, calling it a distraction from the actual mitigation of climate change due to high costs and the resulting radioactive waste.[32] Together with member of parliament Suzanne Kröger (GroenLinks), he wrote a plan in 2022 to tackle climate change. It included more ambitious goals than those proposed by the cabinet, and it focused on allowing people with lower incomes to become more sustainable.[33] To aid the reduction of reactive nitrogen emissions in the nitrogen crisis in the Netherlands, the government maintained a policy of buying out farmers. Thijssen subsequently proposed that debts of those discontinuing farmers would be partly written off by Rabobank, the largest agricultural financier. This would prevent a major portion of the buyout money ending up at the bank.[34] A motion by Thijssen to investigate the possibility of such a bail-in was supported by a majority of the House.[35]

Thijssen was the Labour Party's lijstduwer in his home municipality of Gooise Meren in the 2022 municipal elections.[36]

Personal life

He lives in the North Holland village Muiderberg with his girlfriend and two sons, and he is a vegetarian.[1][4]

Electoral history

Electoral history of Joris Thijssen
Year Body Party Pos. Votes Result Ref.
Party seats Individual
2021 House of Representatives Labour Party 6 2,666 9 Won [37]
2023 House of Representatives GroenLinks–PvdA 16 1,871 25 Won [38]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Kraak, Haro (30 November 2020). "Kandidaat-Kamerlid voor de PvdA met een lange lijst arrestaties als Greenpeace-activist" [MP candidate of the Labour Party with a long list of arrests as Greenpeace activist]. De Volkskrant (in Dutch). Retrieved 29 December 2020.
  2. 1 2 3 "Joris Thijssen". Tweede Kamer der Staten-Generaal. 31 March 2021. Retrieved 19 November 2023.
  3. 1 2 3 Thijssen, Joris (3 January 2019). "Ik had gedacht dat multinationals het klimaat serieus zouden nemen" [I had expected multinationals to take the climate seriously]. nrc.nl (Interview) (in Dutch). Interviewed by Hester van Santen. Retrieved 28 December 2020.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Van Uffelen, Connie (October 2019). "After Delft – Joris Thijssen". Delft Outlook. Retrieved 30 December 2020 – via TU Delft.
  5. ↑ Thijssen, Joris (29 March 2023). "Joris Thijssen (PvdA): 'Dappere besluiten nodig over energietransitie'" [Joris Thijssen (Labour Party): 'Brave decisions concerning the energy transition required']. VNO-NCW (Interview) (in Dutch). Interviewed by Paul Scheer. Retrieved 30 May 2023.
  6. ↑ De Sloover, Sara (5 August 2008). "Op naar de sterren en daar voorbij" [To the stars and beyond]. Volkskrant Banen (in Dutch). pp. 18–19.
  7. ↑ Thijssen, Joris (23 August 2021). "Thijssen (PvdA): Voor een compromis op klimaatgebied is het al te laat" [Thijssen (Labour Party): It is already too late for a compromise on climate]. Reformatorisch Dagblad (Interview) (in Dutch). Interviewed by Henk Kraijenoord. Retrieved 29 August 2021.
  8. 1 2 "Personalia" [Personal details]. Energeia (in Dutch). 27 November 2020. Retrieved 29 November 2020.
  9. ↑ Oostveen, Margriet (18 November 2002). "De activist, de filosoof en de strateeg" [The activist, the philosopher, and the strategist]. nrc.nl (in Dutch). Retrieved 30 December 2020.
  10. ↑ Joosten, Carla (27 November 2019). "De 100 van Jesse Klaver" [The 100 of Jesse Klaver]. Elsevier Weekblad (in Dutch). Vol. 75, no. 48. p. 10.
  11. ↑ Kranenberg, Annieke; Kruijt, Michiel (24 July 2002). "'Minister' kwam ongehinderd paleisterrein op" ['Minister' managed to enter palace grounds unhindered]. De Volkskrant (in Dutch). p. 2.
  12. ↑ "Activist verstoort debat" [Activist disrupts debate]. NRC Handelsblad (in Dutch). 19 September 2002. p. 2.
  13. ↑ "Geen vervolging 'milieuminister'" [No prosecution for 'environmental minister']. Algemeen Dagblad (in Dutch). 30 May 2003. p. 3.
  14. ↑ Bonger, Saskia (14 September 2011). "Realistische activist" [Realistic activist]. Delta (in Dutch). Retrieved 30 December 2020.
  15. ↑ Van Zoelen, Bart (8 January 2010). "De milieuminister is weer thuis" [The environmental minister is home again]. Het Parool (in Dutch). p. 4.
  16. ↑ Meershoek, Patrick (13 December 2009). "Activist milieutop nog vast" [Activist environmental summit still detained]. Het Parool (in Dutch). p. 2.
  17. ↑ "Geen cel voor toneelspelers in Kopenhagen" [No sentencing for stage actors in Copenhagen]. De Volkskrant (in Dutch). ANP. 27 August 2011. p. 31.
  18. ↑ Punt, Peter (29 August 2012). "Activist Greenpeace krijgt schadevergoeding" [Greenpeace activist receives compensation]. Het Parool (in Dutch). ANP. Retrieved 28 December 2020.
  19. ↑ Veldman, Willemien (14 October 2010). "'Milieuminister' Greenpeace opgepakt" ['Environmental minister' Greenpeace arrested]. BN DeStem (in Dutch). ANP. Retrieved 28 December 2020.
  20. ↑ Bouma, Joop (28 August 2013). "Zuinig met energie wordt weer de norm" [Sustainable energy usage will again become the norm]. Trouw (in Dutch). p. 9.
  21. ↑ "Wat is het Energieakkoord?" [What is the Energieakkoord?]. SER (in Dutch). Retrieved 28 December 2020.
  22. ↑ "Greenpeace maakt nieuwe directie bekend" [Greenpeace announces new management]. Greenpeace (Press release) (in Dutch). 7 July 2016. Retrieved 30 December 2020.
  23. ↑ Schoemakers, Anna (16 February 2019). "Anna Schoemakers: 'Gekke henkie? Prima'" [Anna Schoemakers: 'Crazy? Fine']. Het Parool (Interview) (in Dutch). Interviewed by Vera Spaans.
  24. ↑ "Greenpeace blokkeert kolenschip in Eemshaven" [Greenpeace blocks coal ship in Eemshaven]. NOS (in Dutch). 8 September 2016. Retrieved 30 December 2020.
  25. ↑ Dupont–Nivet, Daphné; Woutersen, Emiel (9 August 2017). "Met de vuist aan tafel" [Tough around the table]. De Groene Amsterdammer (in Dutch). Retrieved 28 December 2020.
  26. ↑ Van Dijk, Bert (19 April 2018). "Greenpeace gaat extra investeren om teruggang aantal donateurs te stoppen" [Greenpeace will invest more to halt decrease in amount of donors]. Het Financieele Dagblad (in Dutch). Retrieved 28 December 2020.
  27. ↑ Markus, Niels (4 December 2018). "Klimaatakkoord in gevaar nu milieuclubs ontevreden zijn" [Climate accord in danger now that environmental organizations are unhappy]. Trouw (in Dutch). Retrieved 28 December 2020.
  28. ↑ Grol, Carel; Knoop, Bas (21 December 2018). "Klimaatakkoord: moeizaam compromis dat zich nog moet bewijzen" [Climate accord: difficult compromise that still has to prove itself]. Het Financieele Dagblad (in Dutch). Retrieved 28 December 2020.
  29. ↑ "Kandidatenlijst 2021" [2021 party list]. PvdA (in Dutch). Archived from the original on 14 March 2021. Retrieved 26 February 2021.
  30. ↑ "Uitslag Tweede Kamerverkiezing 17 maart 2021" [Results general election 17 March 2021] (PDF). Kiesraad (in Dutch). 26 March 2021. p. 268. Retrieved 27 March 2021.
  31. ↑ "Tweede Kamer" [House of Representatives]. PvdA (in Dutch). Retrieved 22 April 2022.
  32. ↑ Thijssen, Joris (12 February 2022). "'Kerncentrales draaien op subsidie'" [Nuclear power plants are running on subsidies'] (in Dutch). Retrieved 22 April 2022.
  33. ↑ "PvdA en GroenLinks: ambitieuzere klimaatdoelen, ook voor armeren" [Labour Party and GroenLinks: More ambitious climate goals, also for the poor]. Leeuwarder Courant (in Dutch). 31 May 2022.
  34. ↑ "'Agro-industrie moet miljarden meebetalen aan stikstofcrisis'" ['Agricultural sector has to aid in paying billions for reactive nitrogen crisis']. NOS (in Dutch). 7 July 2022. Retrieved 3 September 2022.
  35. ↑ "Rabobank: kwijtschelden boerenleningen niet aan de orde" [Rabobank: Writing of debts of farmers is out of the question]. NRC (in Dutch). 12 July 2022. Retrieved 3 September 2022.
  36. ↑ "Vaststelling aantal stemmen in gemeente" [Determination of number of votes in municipality] (PDF). Gooise Meren (in Dutch). 17 March 2022. p. 7. Retrieved 22 April 2022.
  37. ↑ "Proces-verbaal verkiezingsuitslag Tweede Kamer 2021" [Report of the election results House of Representatives 2021] (PDF). Dutch Electoral Council (in Dutch). 29 March 2021. pp. 111–130, 232. Retrieved 21 December 2023.
  38. ↑ "Proces-verbaal van de uitslag van de verkiezing van de Tweede Kamer der Staten-Generaal 2023 d.d. 4 december 2023" [Report of the results of the election of the House of Representatives on 4 December 2023] (PDF). Dutch Electoral Council (in Dutch). 4 December 2023. pp. 23–31, 199. Retrieved 21 December 2023.
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