1.
Juliana of the Netherlands
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Juliana was Queen of the Kingdom of the Netherlands from 1948 until her abdication in 1980. Juliana was the child of Queen Wilhelmina and Prince Henry. From birth she was heir presumptive to the Dutch throne, in 1937, she married Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld with whom she had four children, Beatrix, Irene, Margriet, and Christina. She reigned for nearly 32 years and her reign saw the decolonization of Dutch East Indies and Suriname and their independence from the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Upon her death at the age of 94, she was the former reigning monarch in the world. Juliana was born in The Hague on 30 April 1909, the daughter of Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands and Prince Henry. She was the first Dutch royal baby since Wilhelmina herself was born in 1880, Wilhelmina had suffered two miscarriages and one stillbirth, raising the prospect that the House of Orange-Nassau would die with her. In all likelihood, this would have meant that the Dutch throne would have passed to Prince Heinrich XXXII Reuss of Köstritz, Julianas birth thus assured the royal familys survival. Her mother suffered two miscarriages after her birth, leaving Juliana as the royal couples only child. Juliana spent her childhood at Het Loo Palace in Apeldoorn, and at Noordeinde Palace and these children were Baroness Elise Bentinck, Baroness Elisabeth van Hardenbroek and Jonkvrouwe Miek de Jonge. As the Dutch constitution specified that Princess Juliana should be ready to succeed to the throne by the age of eighteen, after five years of primary education, the Princess received her secondary education from private tutors. On 30 April 1927, Princess Juliana celebrated her eighteenth birthday, under the constitution, she had officially come of age and was entitled to assume the royal prerogative, if necessary. Two days later her mother installed her in the Raad van State, in the same year, the Princess enrolled as a student at the University of Leiden. In her first years at university, she attended lectures in sociology, jurisprudence, economics, history of religion, parliamentary history, and constitutional law. In the course of her studies she attended lectures on the cultures of Suriname and the Netherlands Antilles, international affairs, international law, history. She graduated from the university in 1930 with a degree in international law. In the 1930s, Queen Wilhelmina began a search for a husband for her daughter. At the time, the House of Orange was one of the most strictly religious royal families in the world, princes from the United Kingdom and Sweden were vetted but either declined or were rejected by the princess
2.
People's Party for Freedom and Democracy
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The Peoples Party for Freedom and Democracy is a conservative-liberal political party in the Netherlands. The VVD, whose forerunner was the Freedom Party, supports private enterprise, Mark Rutte has been the partys leader since 31 May 2006 and the Prime Minister of the Netherlands since 14 October 2010. Therefore, an election was held in September 2012. The VVD remained the largest party, with 41 seats, from November 2012 until March 2017, the VVD was the senior partner in the Second Rutte cabinet, a purple coalition government with the Labour Party. The VVD was founded in 1948 as a continuation of the Freedom Party, which was a continuation of the interbellum Liberal State Party and they were joined by the Comité-Oud, a group of liberal members of the Labour Party, led by Pieter Oud. The liberals within the Labour Party were primarily members of the pre-war social-liberal Free-thinking Democratic League and they were unhappy with the social-democratic orientation of the Labour Party. Between 1948 and 1952 the VVD took part in the cabinets led by the Labour Party Prime Minister Willem Drees. The party was a partner with only eight seats to the Catholic Peoples Party and Labour Party. The partys leadership was in the hands of the respected former Labour Party member Oud, the Drees cabinet laid the foundation for the welfare state and decolonization of the Dutch East Indies. In the Dutch general election of 1952 the VVD gained one seat and this time they gained nineteen seats and the party entered government alongside the Protestant Anti Revolutionary Party, Christian Historical Union CHU and the Roman Catholic KVP. In 1963, Oud left politics, and was succeeded by the minister of Home Affairs Edzo Toxopeus, with the lead of Toxopeus VVD lost three seats in the 1963 elections, but remained in government. In 1966, frustrated with their hopeless efforts, LDC-members departed the VVD altogether, in 1965, there also occurred a conflict between VVD-ministers and their counterparts from KVP and ARP in Cabinet Marijnen. The cabinet fell and without elections it was replaced by the KVP-ARP-Labour Party cabinet under Cals, in the following 1967 elections the VVD remained relatively stable and entered yet again the cabinet under Prime Minister Piet de Jong. During this period the VVD had loose ties with other liberal organisations and this included the liberal papers Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant and the Algemeen Handelsblad, the broadcaster AVRO and the employers organisation VNO. In the Dutch general election of 1971 the VVD lost one seat, a cabinet was formed by the Christian-democratic parties, the VVD and the Labour Party offshoot Democratic Socialists 70. This cabinet fell after a few months, meanwhile, the charismatic young MP Hans Wiegel had attracted considerable attention. He became the new leader of the VVD, in 1971 he became the new Parliamentary group leader, with Wiegel the VVD oriented towards a new political course, reforming the welfare state, cutting taxes etc. Wiegel did not shrink from conflict with the Labour Party and the trade unions, with this new course came a new electorate, working class and middle-class voters, who because of individualization and depillarization were more easy to attract
3.
Anti-Revolutionary Party
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The Anti-Revolutionary Party was a Protestant Christian-democratic political party in the Netherlands. The party was founded in 1879 by Abraham Kuyper, a theologian, in 1980 the party merged with the Catholic Peoples Party and the Christian Historical Union to form the Christian Democratic Appeal. The anti-revolutionary parliamentary caucus had existed since the 1840s and it represented orthodox tendencies within the Dutch Reformed Church. Their three values were God, the Netherlands, and the House of Orange, an important issue was public education, which in the view of the anti-revolutionaries should be Protestant-Christian in nature. During the 1860s Groen van Prinsterer became more isolated from his conservative allies and he also began to reformulate his Protestant-Christian ideals, and began to plead for souvereiniteit in eigen kring instead of theocracy. This meant that instead of one Protestant-Christian society, Groen van Prinsterer wanted a Protestant society within a pluralistic society, orthodox Protestants would have their own churches, schools, papers, political parties and sports clubs. This laid the basis for pillarization, which was to dominate Dutch society between 1880 and 1960, in 1864 Groen van Prinsterer began to correspond with a young Dutch Reformed theologian named Abraham Kuyper. Kuyper was heavily influenced by Groen van Prinsterers ideas and began to put the ideal of an orthodox Protestant society within Dutch society into practice. On April 3,1879, Abraham Kuyper founded the ARP and it was the first nationally organized political party in the Netherlands. An 1878 petition for payment for religious schools became one of the catalysts for the foundation of the political movement. In 1877 Kuyper had already written Our Program in which the ideals of the ARP were written down. Around the ARP the separate Protestant society began to grow, many Protestant schools were founded, a Protestant university, in 1886 Kuyper broke free from the liberal Dutch Reformed Church to found the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands in 1892. The ARP had one practical political goal, equalization of payment between public and religious schools, in 1879 thirteen anti-revolutionaries were in the House of Representatives, although not all were members of the ARP. During the period 1879-1883 their numbers grew slowly, peaking at 19, after the 1884 election they had 21 members parliament. In 1886 they won their first seat in the Senate, in the 1888 election the ARP won 31. 4% of the vote and 27 seats. A confessional cabinet was formed led by the anti-revolutionary Æneas Baron Mackay, it combined anti-revolutionary and Catholic ministers, because the liberals still controlled the Senate, many of the cabinets proposals met resistance there and the cabinet fell before the end of its four-year term. In the 1891 election the ARP lost 2% of its votes, the confessional parties also lost their majority. A liberal cabinet, led by Van Tienhoven was formed and it proposed drastic changes to the census, which would result practically in universal male suffrage, proposed by minister Tak
4.
Labour Party (Netherlands)
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The Labour Party is a social-democratic political party in the Netherlands. The party was founded in 1946 as a merger of the Social Democratic Workers Party, the Free-thinking Democratic League, Prime Ministers from the Labour Party have been Willem Drees, Joop den Uyl, and Wim Kok. Since 2012, the PvdA is the partner in the Second Rutte cabinet with the Peoples Party for Freedom. Since 2016, Lodewijk Asscher has been Leader of the Labour Party, the party won 9 seats in the House of Representatives in the 2017 general election. The Labour Party is a member of the European Party of European Socialists, in the European Parliament, where the Labour Party has 3 seats, it is part of the parliamentary group Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats. They were joined by individuals from Catholic resistance group Christofoor and the Protestant parties Christian Historical Union, the founders of the PvdA wanted to create a broad party, breaking with the historic tradition of Pillarisation. This desire to come to a new system was called the Doorbraak. The party combined socialists with liberal democrats and progressive Christians, however, the party was unable to break Pillarisation. Instead the new party renewed the ties that SDAP had with other socialist organisations. In 1948 some conservative members, led by former VDB leader Pieter Oud, together with the Freedom Party, they formed the Peoples Party for Freedom and Democracy, a conservative-liberal party. Between 1946 and 1958, the PvdA formed coalition governments with the Catholic Peoples Party, the KVP and the PvdA together had a large majority in parliament. Since 1948, these cabinets were led by PvdA Prime Minister Willem Drees, under his leadership the Netherlands recovered from the war, began to build its welfare state and Indonesia became independent. After the cabinet crisis of 1958, the PvdA was replaced by the VVD, the PvdA was in opposition until 1965. The electoral support of PvdA voters began to decline, in 1965 a conflict in the KVP-ARP-CHU-VVD cabinet made continuation of the government impossible. The three confessional, Christian-influenced parties turned towards the PvdA, together they formed the Cals cabinet. This cabinet was also lived and conflict ridden. The conflicts culminated in the fall of the Cals cabinet over economic policy, meanwhile, a younger generation was attempting to gain control of the PvdA. A group of young PvdA members, calling themselves the New Left, prominent New Left members were Jan Nagel, André van der Louw and Bram Peper
5.
Politics of the Netherlands
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The politics of the Netherlands take place within the framework of a parliamentary representative democracy, a constitutional monarchy and a decentralised unitary state. The Netherlands is described as a consociational state, Dutch politics and governance are characterized by a common striving for broad consensus on important issues, within both the political community and society as a whole. The constitution lists the civil and social rights of the Dutch citizens and it describes the position and function of the institutions that have executive, legislative. It should be noted that the constitution of the Netherlands is only applicable in the European part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the Netherlands does not have a Constitutional Court and judges do not have the authority to review laws on their constitutionality. International treaties and the Statute of the Kingdom, however, overrule Dutch law, furthermore, all legislation that is not a law in the strict sense of the word can be tested on their constitutionality. Amendments to the constitution must be approved by both Houses of the States General twice, the first time around, this requires a majority vote. After parliament has been dissolved and general elections are held, both Houses must approve the proposed amendments with a two-thirds vote, major political institutions are the monarchy, the cabinet, the States General and the judicial system. There are three other High Colleges of state, which stand on equal foot with parliament but have a political role. Other levels of government are the municipalities, the waterboards and the provinces, although not mentioned in the constitution, political parties and the social partners organised in the Social Economic Council are important political institutions as well. It is important to realise that the Netherlands does not have a separation of powers, according to the constitution the States General. All legislation has to pass through the Council of State for advice, the executive power is reserved for government. Note however that the Social-Economic Council has the right to make and enforce legislation on several sectors. The judicial power is divided two separate systems of courts. For civil and criminal law the independent Supreme Court is the highest court, for administrative law the Raad van State is the highest court, which is ex officio chaired by the King. The present monarchy was founded in 1813, after the expulsion of the French, the Prince of Orange was proclaimed Sovereign Prince of The Netherlands. The new monarchy was confirmed in 1815 at the Congress of Vienna as part of the re-arrangement of Europe after the fall of Napoleon Bonaparte, the House of Orange-Nassau were given the present day Netherlands and Belgium to govern as the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. Between 1815 and 1890, the King of the Netherlands was also Grand Duke of Luxembourg, the heir apparent is the Princess of Orange, Catharina-Amalia. Constitutionally, the King is head of state and has a role in the formation of government and he has to co-sign every law to make it valid
6.
Monarchy of the Netherlands
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The monarchy of the Netherlands is constitutional and as such, the role and position of the monarch are defined and limited by the constitution of the Netherlands. William became the leader of the Dutch Revolt and the independent Dutch Republic, as stadtholder, he was followed by several of his descendants. In 1747, the function of stadtholder became a position in all Provinces of the thus crowned Dutch Republic. The last stadtholder was William V and his son William I, became the first king. The cycle of monarchs is described in the first section of Chapter 2 of the constitution, the monarchy of the Netherlands passes by right of succession to the heirs of William I. The heir is determined through two mechanisms, absolute cognatic primogeniture and proximity of blood, the Netherlands established absolute cognatic primogeniture instead of male preference primogeniture by law in 1983. Proximity of blood limits accession to the throne to a person who is related to the current monarch within three degrees of kinship. For example, the grandchildren of Princess Margriet of the Netherlands, have no succession rights because their kinship with Beatrix when she was queen was of the fourth degree. Also, succession is limited to heirs, precluding a claim to the throne by children born out of wedlock. A special case arises if the king dies while his wife is pregnant, so, if the old king dies while his wife is pregnant with their first child, the unborn child is immediately considered born and immediately becomes the new king. If the pregnancy ends in stillbirth, his or her reign is expunged, If the monarch is a minor, a regent is appointed and serves until the monarch comes of age. There are also a number of cases within the constitution. First, if there is no heir when the monarch dies the States-General may appoint a successor upon the suggestion of the government and this suggestion may be made before the death of the reigning monarch, even by the monarch himself. Second, some people are excluded from the line of succession and they are, Any heir who marries without the permission of the States-General loses the right of succession. A person who is or has become truly undesirable or unfit as monarch can be removed from the line of succession by an act of the States-General and this clause has never been executed and is considered an emergency exit. An example would be an heir apparent who commits treason or suffers a serious accident, as with most monarchies, the Netherlands cannot be without a monarch — the constitution of the Netherlands does not recognize a situation in which there is no monarch. This is because there must be a head of state in order for the government to function, for this reason the new monarch assumes his role the moment the previous monarch ceases to hold the throne. The only exception is if there is no heir at all, the monarch is expected to execute his duties and responsibilities for the good of the nation
7.
Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands
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Willem-Alexander is the King of the Netherlands. Willem-Alexander was born in Utrecht and is the oldest child of Beatrix of the Netherlands and he became Prince of Orange as heir apparent upon his mothers accession on 30 April 1980, and succeeded her following her abdication on 30 April 2013. He went to primary and secondary schools, served in the Royal Netherlands Navy. He married Máxima Zorreguieta Cerruti in 2002 and they have three daughters, Catharina-Amalia, Princess of Orange, Princess Alexia, and Princess Ariane, Willem-Alexander is interested in sports and international water management issues. At the age of 49, he is currently the second youngest monarch in Europe after Felipe VI of Spain, Willem-Alexander Claus George Ferdinand was born on 27 April 1967 in the University Hospital Utrecht, Now is University Medical Center Utrecht in Utrecht, Netherlands. He is the first child of Princess Beatrix and Prince Claus, and he was the first male Dutch royal baby since the birth of Prince Alexander in 1851, and the first immediate male heir since Alexanders death in 1884. From birth, Willem-Alexander has held the titles Prince of the Netherlands, Prince of Orange-Nassau and he was baptised as a member of the Dutch Reformed Church on 2 September 1967 in Saint Jacobs Church in The Hague. He had two brothers, Prince Friso and Prince Constantijn. He lived with his family at the castle Drakensteyn in the hamlet Lage Vuursche near Baarn from his birth until 1981 and his mother Beatrix became Queen of the Netherlands in 1980, after his grandmother Juliana abdicated. He then received the title of Prince of Orange as heir apparent to the throne of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Willem-Alexander attended Nieuwe Baarnse Elementary School in Baarn from 1973 to 1979. After his military service from 1985 to 1987, Willem-Alexander studied History at Leiden University from 1987 onwards and his final thesis was on the Dutch response to Frances decision under President Charles de Gaulle to leave the NATOs integrated command structure. Willem-Alexander speaks English, Spanish and German in addition to his native Dutch, between secondary school and his university education, Willem-Alexander performed military service in the Royal Netherlands Navy from August 1985 until January 1987. He received his training at the Royal Netherlands Naval College and the frigates HNLMS Tromp and HNLMS Abraham Crijnssen, in 1988 he received additional training at the ship HNLMS Van Kinsbergen and became a lieutenant. As a reservist for the Royal Netherlands Navy, Willem-Alexander was promoted to Lieutenant Commander in 1995, Commander in 1997, Captain at Sea in 2001, and Commodore in 2005. As a reservist for the Royal Netherlands Army, he was made a Major in 1995, and was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in 1997, Colonel in 2001, and Brigadier General in 2005. As a reservist for the Royal Netherlands Air Force, he was made Squadron Leader in 1995, as a reservist for the Royal Marechaussee, he was made Brigadier General in 2005. Before his investiture as king in 2013, Willem-Alexander was honorably discharged from the armed forces, the government declared that the head of state cannot be a serving member of the armed forces, since the government itself holds supreme command over the armed forces. As king, Willem-Alexander may choose to wear a uniform with royal insignia
8.
Mark Rutte
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Mark Rutte is a Dutch politician who has been the Prime Minister of the Netherlands since 14 October 2010, and the Leader of the Peoples Party for Freedom and Democracy since 31 May 2006. At the 2006 general election, the Peoples Party for Freedom and Democracy, already under Rutte, lost six seats, and he became the opposition leader. At the following election in 2010, the VVD won the highest number of votes cast. After a long period, Rutte became Prime Minister and formed a Cabinet. When Rutte was sworn in on 14 October 2010, he became the first liberal Prime Minister of the Netherlands in 92 years, on 5 November 2012, the Second Rutte cabinet was installed by Queen Beatrix. Izaäk Rutte worked for a company, first as an importer in the Dutch East Indies. Rutte attended a high school from 1979 until 1985, specialising in the arts. Although Ruttes original ambition was to attend a conservatory and become a concert pianist, he went to study history at Leiden University instead, where he obtained a MA degree in 1992. Rutte combined his studies with a position on the board of the Youth Organisation Freedom and Democracy, after his studies, Rutte entered the business world, working as a manager for Unilever and Calvé. Until 1997, Rutte was part of the human resource department of Unilever, between 1997 and 2000, Rutte was staff manager for Van den Bergh Nederland, a subsidiary of Unilevers. In 2000, Rutte became a member of the Corporate Human Resources Group, between 1993 and 1997, Rutte was a member of the national board of the VVD. Rutte also served as a member of the VVD candidate committee for the election of 2002. Rutte was elected as Member of Parliament in 2003, Rutte served as Undersecretary in the Social Affairs and Employment ministry from 22 July 2002 to 17 June 2004 in the first and second Balkenende cabinets. Rutte was responsible for fields including bijstand and arbeidsomstandigheden, after the 2003 elections Rutte was briefly also a member of the House of Representatives, from 30 January to 27 May 2003. In office, Rutte showed particular interest in making the Dutch higher education system more competitive internationally, Rutte would have been succeeded by former The Hague alderman Bruno Bruins. Before Bruins could be sworn into office, the second Balkenende cabinet fell, in the subsequently formed third Balkenende cabinet Bruins succeeded Rutte as Undersecretary. Rutte resigned as Undersecretary in June 2006 to return to the House of Representatives, Rutte became an important figure within the VVD leadership. Rutte was campaign manager for the 2006 municipal elections, on 31 May 2006, it was announced that Mark Rutte would be the next front-runner of the VVD
![Azure, billetty Or a lion with a coronet Or armed and langued Gules holding in his dexter paw a sword Argent hilted Or and in the sinister paw seven arrows Argent pointed and bound together Or. [The seven arrows stand for the seven provinces of the Union of Utrecht.] The shield is crowned with the (Dutch) royal crown and supported by two lions Or armed and langued gules. They stand on a scroll Azure with the text (Or) "Je Maintiendrai" (French for "I will maintain".)](/wiki/File:State_coat_of_arms_of_the_Netherlands.svg)
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