Caroline van der Plas

Dutch politician and journalist (born 1967)

Carolina Ann Maria "Caroline" van der Plas (born 6 June 1967) is a Dutch journalist and politician. She is party leader of FarmerCitizenMovement (BoerBurgerBeweging - shortened BBB). That party is focused on the interests of the rural environment in general and of the farmers in particular.

Caroline van der Plas
Member of the House of Representatives
Assumed office
31 March 2021
Parliamentary group leader
Assumed office
18 March 2021
Party leader (list puller)
Assumed office
17 October 2020
Chairwoman
Assumed office
1 November 2019
Personal details
Born
Carolina Ann Maria

(1967-06-06) 6 June 1967 (age 56)
Cuijk, North Brabant, Netherlands
NationalityDutch
Political partyFarmerCitizenMovement (BBB) (2019-)
Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) (-2018)
ResidenceDeventer, Overijssel, Netherlands
Websitewww.parlement.com

Van der Plas started her career in journalism at the Deventer Dagblad. She specialised in agricultural topics. From 2019 to 2020, she was chief editor of Pig Business magazine and pigbusiness.nl website.

Van der Plas was co-founder of the FarmerCitizenMovement in 2019. She was a list puller in the 2021 Dutch general election. Van der Plas was the only one of her party who was elected, so she has been both parliamentary group leader and an MP since March 2021.

Van der Plas was born Cuijk. She lives in Deventer. She is a widow (her husband died in 2019) with two sons. Her father was a well-known Deventer sports journalist. Her mother was a CDA alderwoman in the same Overijssel city. She herself was also a member of the CDA party. In 2018, she gave up membership because of the lack of support for the farmer's interests in her opinion.

Her party in recent months has surged ahead in opinion polling after a strong showing in the 2023 elections.

References change

Other websites change

  Media related to Caroline van der Plas at Wikimedia Commons