Wikipedia

Anne-Marijke Podt

Anne-Marijke Podt (born 16 January 1975) is a Dutch politician of the social liberal party Democrats 66 (D66), who has been serving as a member of the House of Representatives since September 2021. She had previously been a member of the Utrecht municipal council starting in 2014, and she has worked as an aid worker and as an independent adviser for municipalities.

Anne-Marijke Podt
Podt in 2017
Member of the House of Representatives
Incumbent
Assumed office
7 September 2021
Preceded bySteven van Weyenberg
Member of the Utrecht municipal council
In office
27 March 2014[1] – 16 September 2021[2]
Succeeded byAndrea Naphegyi
Personal details
Born (1975-01-16) 16 January 1975 (age 49)
Papendrecht, Netherlands
Political partyDemocrats 66
Children1
Alma materDelft University of Technology
Occupation
  • Politician
  • independent adviser
  • aid worker
Websiteannemarijkepodt.nl

Early life and career

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Podt was born and raised in the South Holland town of Papendrecht and lived in its Molenwijk neighborhood.[3][4] Her father was the manager of a factory of plastic products that her grandfather had founded.[5] Podt attended the secondary school De Lage Waard and graduated in 1994 with an atheneum diploma.[6] She subsequently studied industrial design engineering at Delft University of Technology for eight years, including one year as a full-time board member of a student association, and did an internship in Nicaragua.[7][8] During the last three years of her study, Podt worked as a partner and trainer for a company called PinguinXL.[7]

After graduating, she became a project manager at the traffic innovation department of CBR, which is responsible for driving licenses in the Netherlands. She then took a job in 2005 at the non-profit International Institute for Communication and Development (IICD) as a monitoring and evaluation expert and filled that position for five years. For the last three of those years, she also served as an ICT and democratization coordinator for the organization's Ecuador operations. Podt became the IICD's Kenya country manager in 2011.[7] She left the foundation in 2014 to work as a freelance social adviser for municipalities under the name A Single Step.[7][9]

While a freelancer, she held positions as an advisory board member of Utrecht University's Incluusion refugee program (2016) and as chair of the supervisory board of ActionAid Netherlands (2018–21).[7]

Politics

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Podt ran for the Utrecht municipal council in 2014 and was elected as D66's seventh candidate.[10] She had previously chaired D66's International Affairs/International Cooperation thematic department in the years 2010–12.[11] In the council, Podt's specialties were youth, welfare, public health, diversity, social shelters, and addiction treatment.[12] In 2016, she proposed a pilot to immediately give a house to 200 news refugees who have yet to receive a residence permit and to start their integration process. The plan did not receive enough support from the council.[13][14] She also successfully pled for unisex toilets in municipal buildings in 2016 to make them more attractive for transgender people, making Utrecht the first municipality in the Netherlands to have them in its city hall.[15] Podt was re-elected in 2018, being placed second on D66's party list, and became her party's vice caucus chair.[16] Her specialties changed to work, income, LGBTI, refugees, integration, social shelters, and addiction treatment.[17]

Podt participated in the March 2021 general election as D66's 26th candidate.[18] She received 3,919 preference votes and was not elected, as her party won 24 seats.[19] Following the resignation of D66 member of parliament Steven van Weyenberg, Podt was sworn into the House of Representatives on 7 September 2021. Van Weyenberg had stepped down due to his new cabinet position.[9] Podt left the Utrecht municipal council and serves in the House as D66's spokesperson for refugees, migration, the Participation Act, migrant workers, labor conditions, integration, sex work, and human trafficking.[2][20] She is on the Committees for Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality (vice chair); for Education, Culture and Science; for Finance; for Justice and Security; and for Social Affairs and Employment.[21] In the House, Podt advocated allowing migrant workers into the Netherlands to mitigate personnel shortages.[5] She also wrote a policy proposal to mostly remove labor restrictions for asylum seekers. These limited migrants from being employed within half a year of their arrival and from working more than 24 weeks per year afterwards. Under Podt's proposal, asylum seekers would have to wait only one month after their arrival to apply for jobs, and the yearly limit would be removed. A judge later called the labor restrictions unlawful, but the cabinet appealed the decision. During a debate on Podt's proposal in May 2023, Minister for Migration Eric van der Burg (VVD) opposed the plans, saying there are more pressing issues related to an increased migrant influx to focus on.[22]

She was re-elected in November 2023, and her portfolio changed to migration, labor, purchasing power, agriculture, nature, food, childcare, sex work, and human trafficking.[23]

Personal life

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Podt has been living in the city of Utrecht since the second half of the 2000s.[21][3] She has a boyfriend and a daughter.[24]

Electoral history

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Electoral history of Anne-Marijke Podt
Year Body Party Pos. Votes Result Ref.
Party seats Individual
2014 Utrecht Municipal Council Democrats 66 7 1,999 13 Won
2018 Utrecht Municipal Council Democrats 66 2 8,864 10 Won
2021 House of Representatives Democrats 66 26 3,919 24 Lost[a] [25]
2023 House of Representatives Democrats 66 4 64,426 9 Won [26]

Notes

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  1. ^ Podt was appointed to the body later during the term due to a vacancy.

References

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  1. ^ "Gemeenteraad" [Municipal council]. Gemeente Utrecht (in Dutch). Retrieved 3 November 2021.
  2. ^ a b "Gemeenteraad" [Municipal council]. Gemeente Utrecht (in Dutch). Retrieved 7 November 2021.
  3. ^ a b "Over mij" [About me]. Anne-Marijke Podt (in Dutch). Archived from the original on 10 December 2021. Retrieved 7 November 2021.
  4. ^ Podt, Anne-Marijke (9 March 2022). "'Eén van de leukste dingen'" [One of the most fun things']. Het Kontakt (Interview). p. 49.
  5. ^ a b Podt, Anne-Marijke (2 February 2023). "Waarom Anne-Marijke Podt (D66) een lans breekt voor arbeidsmigranten" [Why Anne-Marijke Podt (D66) is standing up for migrant workers]. VNO-NCW (Interview) (in Dutch). Interviewed by Paul Scheer. Retrieved 26 February 2023.
  6. ^ "De Lage Waard Papendrecht". De Dordtenaar (in Dutch). 23 June 2014. p. 8.
  7. ^ a b c d e "Biografie, onderwijs en loopbaan van Anne-Marijke Podt" [Biography, education, and career of Anne-Marijke Podt]. Tweede Kamer der Staten-Generaal (in Dutch). Archived from the original on 8 November 2021. Retrieved 7 November 2021.
  8. ^ Podt, Anne-Marijke (8 March 2021). "In gesprek met… Anne-Marijke Podt!" [In conversation with... Anne-Marijke Podt!]. D66 Apeldoorn (Interview) (in Dutch). Retrieved 7 November 2021.
  9. ^ a b "Vijf Kamerleden beëdigd" [Five House members sworn in]. Tweede Kamer der Staten-Generaal (Press release) (in Dutch). 7 September 2021. Retrieved 7 November 2021.
  10. ^ "Gemeenteraadsverkiezingen 2014" [2014 municipal elections] (PDF). Gemeente Utrecht (in Dutch). 21 March 2014. p. 38. Retrieved 3 November 2021.
  11. ^ "Afdeling Utrecht kandidaten gemeenteraad 2018" [Division Utrecht candidates municipal council 2018] (PDF) (in Dutch). 28 September 2017. Retrieved 7 November 2021.
  12. ^ "Anne-Marijke Podt". Gemeente Utrecht (in Dutch). Archived from the original on 20 July 2015. Retrieved 7 November 2021.
  13. ^ "Geen proef met snel huis voor vluchtelingen" [No pilot to quickly give refugees a house]. AD/Utrechts Nieuwsblad (in Dutch). 1 April 2016. p. 6.
  14. ^ Heerschop, Tessa (1 April 2016). "Raad tegen pilot D66 asielzoekers" [Council against D66 pilot for refugees]. De Telegraaf (in Dutch). p. 14.
  15. ^ Huygen, Maarten (19 July 2016). "In het begin is het wat ongemakkelijk, die gemengde wc" [In the beginning it is a bit uncomfortable, those unisex toilets]. NRC (in Dutch). Retrieved 3 November 2021.
  16. ^ "D66 klaar voor de gemeenteraadsverkiezing". D66 Utrecht (Press release) (in Dutch). 13 October 2018. Retrieved 3 November 2021.
  17. ^ "Anne-Marijke Podt". D66 Utrecht (in Dutch). Archived from the original on 5 February 2020. Retrieved 7 November 2021.
  18. ^ "Dit zijn onze kandidaten voor de Tweede Kamer verkiezingen" [These are our candidates in the general election]. D66 (in Dutch). Archived from the original on 5 December 2021. Retrieved 7 November 2021.
  19. ^ "Tweede Kamer 17 maart 2021" [House of Representatives 17 March 2021]. Databank Verkiezingsuitslagen (in Dutch). Kiesraad. Retrieved 7 November 2021.
  20. ^ "Verdeling van portefeuilles Tweede Kamerfractie" [Division of the specialties House of Representatives caucus]. D66 (in Dutch). Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  21. ^ a b "Anne-Marijke Podt". Tweede Kamer der Staten-Generaal. 7 September 2021. Retrieved 31 March 2022.
  22. ^ De Horde, Cor (5 June 2023). "Snellere werkvergunning voor asielzoeker gaat nog even duren" [Quicker labor permit for asylum seekers will take a while]. Het Financieele Dagblad (in Dutch). Retrieved 15 July 2023.
  23. ^ "Verdeling van portefeuilles Tweede Kamerfractie" [Portfolio allocation House of Representatives group]. Democrats 66 (in Dutch). Retrieved 14 April 2024.
  24. ^ "Anne-Marijke Podt". D66 (in Dutch). Retrieved 20 March 2022.
  25. ^ "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. 62–100. Retrieved 21 December 2023.
  26. ^ "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. 19–20. Retrieved 21 December 2023.
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