Diederik Samsom

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Diederik Maarten Samsom (born July 10, 1971) is a Dutch politician and has been a member of the Dutch lower house for the Labour Party (PvdA) since January 30, 2003. Before that he was the CEO of green energy company and a campaigner for Greenpeace Netherlands. Samsom is the party's spokesperson on environmental issues.^[1]

[edit] Early life and career

Samsom was born in Groningen, and raised in Leeuwarden, The Netherlands. His father is an internist and his mother is a physiotherapist.^[1] Between 1983 and 1989 he attended the elitist Municipal Gymnasium (Dutch: "Stedelijk Gymnasium") in the Leeuwarden. There he became interested in physics and so he went on to study Technical Physics (Dutch: "Technische Natuurkunde") at Delft University of Technology.^[2] Samsom specialised in nuclear physics and became a level three radiation expert. He graduated in May 1997, obtaining a Ir.^[3] (Master of Science) degree.^[1] He was also on the board of the National Students' Union LSVb and edited a yearly edition of the Poenboek, which is basically a students' guide concerning monetary issues.^[1]

Samsom had been involved in environmentalism long before entering politics. Samsom joined environmental organisation Greenpeace Netherlands in September 1995 as a volunteer. He led several campaigns and projects until he quit in December 2001, when the PvdA approached him offering a career in politics.^[1][4] He has also worked as the CEO of Real Energy (Dutch: "Echte Energie"), a small green energy trading company, from August 2002 until January 2003.^[1]

[edit] Political career

Samsom became a member of the social democratic Labour party as a student whilst in Delft but left only to join again in February 2001.^[1] He was already a candidate for the 2002 Dutch general election, but he was not elected due to the PvdA's enormous losses. The party led by Ad Melkert had suffered a humiliating defeat, losing 22 of its 45 parliamentary seats. The coalition formed after the elections became known as the First Balkenende cabinet and did luckily for the PvdA and Samsom not last long. The party regained most of its seats in the 2003 election and this time Samsom was given a high position (nine)^[5] on the list of candidates. He was subsequently sworn in as a member of the Tweede Kamer on January 30, 2003.^[6]

[edit] Red Engineer

Together with fellow PvdA parliamentarians Staf Depla and Jeroen Dijsselbloem he traveled around the country campaigning. Covered in red overalls, they operated under the name The Red Engineers (Dutch:De rode ingenieurs), referring to their scientific backgrounds. NRC editor Coen van Zwol called their campaign fresh, clear and sharp (Dutch: fris, helder en scherp).^[7]

[edit] Parliamentarian (2003-present)

Samsom is the party's spokesperson on environmental issues: sustainability, climate and energy, traffic congestion and railway issues and projects.^[1]

[edit] 2008 Parliamentary Chair election

In April 2008, Samsom had a good chance of becoming fractievoorzitter after Jacques Tichelaar relinquished office, but eventually he lost the vote to Mariëtte Hamer.

Jacques Tichelaar became the leader of the parliamentary party shortly after the 2006 general election in February 2007^[8] but fell ill in January 2008. He had to undergo a septuple bypass surgery and it took him three months to recuperate. On April 16, he announced he had decided to resign from office for health reasons.^[9] He plans to return as a parliamentarian on July 1, 2008.^[10] As vice parliamentary leader Hamer had led the party in Tichelaar's absence. The next day she decided to run for office.^[11] Three days later, Diederik Samsom officially announced he would compete also compete in the race. Other names were mentioned, but only Samsom and Hamer decided to vie for the position.^[12] All 33 Parliamentarians gathered two days later to discuss the position and cast their votes, resulting in a victory for Hamer.^[13]

According to opinion poller Maurice de Hond, a majority of the 2006 Labour voters preferred Samsom as party leader. Out of a total of 1500 Labour voters, 26 per cent favoured Hamer while 42 per cent liked Samsom better. From the people who indicate they will vote for the PvdA in the future a smaller majority of 40 to 35 preferred Samsom.^[14]

[edit] Media appearances

Samsom has been involved with a number of television appearances including BNN's De Nieuwste Show, a satirical news show à la The Daily Show, current affairs programme Nova^[15], comical talk show Raymann is Laat, KRO's Nederland komt thuis and VARA's daily talk shows De wereld draait door and Pauw & Wittman, on which he has appeared twice.^[16]

[edit] Quizzes

Quizking, that's how NRC Handelsblad referred to him after he won his fifth televised game show.^[17] Particularly notable are his consecutive victories in the 2005 and 2006 National IQ Tests.^[7] According to the test, he has an IQ of 136.^[18] He also won the popular National News Quiz in 2005 and 2006 ^[19] and in May 2008 he was crowned winner of the Big History Quiz.^[17]

[edit] Personal life

Samsom was raised in a non-religious family and considers himself an atheist. He's a non smoker and observes a vegetarian diet.^[4] As his favourite sports he cites swimming and polo.^[4] Samsom is married, and has two children. His daughter Benthe was born in 2001 and his son Fane was born in 2006. Samsom lived on a houseboat in Broek in Waterland with his then girlfriend and daughter before moving to Leiden, where he still resides as of 2008.^[2][4]

[edit] Notes and references

[edit] Further reading

• Oostveen, Margriet "De activist, de filosoof, de strateeg", NRC Handelsblad, November 18, 2002 (Dutch)

[edit] External links

• Personal website (Dutch)

• Curriculum vitae (Dutch)
• Samsom in the media (Dutch)

• The Red Engineers campaign website (Dutch)