# Joost Eerdmans

Bernard Johannes "Joost" Eerdmans (born 9 January 1971) is a Dutch politician, broadcaster and former civil servant who has served as Leader of JA21 since 18 December 2020, a party he co-founded with Annabel Nanninga. Elected to the House of Representatives in the 2021 general election, he took office on 31 March 2021. Eerdmans had previously served as a member of the House of Representatives from 23 May 2002 until 30 November 2006 for the Pim Fortuyn List (LPF) and as an Independent.

## Early life

Bernard Johannes Eerdmans was born on 9 January 1971 in Harderwijk in the province of Gelderland in a Reformed family. He graduated at the Christelijk College Nassau-Veluwe. After that, Eerdmans studied Management Science at the Erasmus Universiteit in Rotterdam. In 1995 he received his master's degree, having undertaken postgraduate studies at the Public administration School for Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, in 1993. He is the cousin of Dutch author and game show host Theo Eerdmans.

## Professional career

After graduating, Eerdmans worked for some time on projects for the Christian Democratic Appeal faction in the Dutch House of Representatives. He was then employed as a civil servant at the Ministry of Justice from 1997 until 1999 and was a staff member to the Director General of the law enforcement department at the Ministry of Justice. In 1999 he became secretary to Ivo Opstelten, the Mayor of Rotterdam. After first losing his seat in parliament in 2006, Eerdmans worked in the private sector as a public affairs manager for Deloitte from 2007 to 2009.

## Politics
### Pim Fortuyn List

Eerdmans first joined the Christian Democratic Appeal but left after disagreeing the CDA's course and saying in his own words "I thought they spoke a different language. I started to dislike it more and more." A week after leaving the Liveable Netherlands party in 2002, Eerdmans contacted Pim Fortuyn, who at that time was busy assembling a list of candidates for his new political party, the Pim Fortuyn List (LPF). Eerdmans was placed nineteenth on the list and after the 2002 election he became a member of the House of Representatives, while his party joined the First Balkenende cabinet. Eerdmans focused on matters related to justice and police. Together with then PvdA MP Aleid Wolfsen, he submitted a bill to punish animal cruelty more severely and argued for increasing minimum sentencing for violent crimes. In 2005, Eerdmans was awarded the Thorbecke Prize from Leiden University which is awarded to the "most eloquent politician."
After the fall of the cabinet, new elections were called. This time the LPF won only eight seats, but since Eerdmans was second on the list he remained in Parliament. He was removed from the party's parliamentary faction after it was definitively announced that Eerdmans would be on the One NL candidate list for the 2006 election.

### One NL

For the 2006 general election, Eerdmans split with the LPF to form a new political party called One NL with Marco Pastors of Leefbaar Rotterdam. After the dismal result of One NL in the 2006 election, Eerdmans left Dutch politics and worked in business before forging a career as a television and radio broadcaster.

### Leefbaar Rotterdam

Eerdmans made a return to local politics when he was elected lijsttrekker of Leefbaar Rotterdam on 6 October 2013. In the local elections of 2014 Leefbaar Rotterdam became the biggest party in Rotterdam, meaning the party would get the chance to lead the formation of a new coalition. The party subsequently formed a coalition with the Democrats 66 (D66) and Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA), in which Eerdmans became an alderman.

### Forum for Democracy

Eerdmans worked with the Forum for Democracy during the 2018 Dutch municipal elections. For the 2021 general election, Eerdmans announced a return to national politics and was to be fourth on the party list of FvD led by Thierry Baudet. However, before this could be effectuated Eerdmans quit the party soon after the announcement, citing what he saw as the FvD's insufficient handling of antisemitism, homophobia and racism scandals from other party members.

### JA21

After leaving the Forum for Democracy, Eerdmans founded a new political party JA21 (Right Answer 2021) with ex-FvD members which aimed to compete in the 2021 general election. Eerdmans said that he wanted to see a return of Fortuynism in Dutch politics which he summarized as a decisive, no-nonsense and straightforward approach to decision making. He also stated that JA21 would function as a "right-wing no-nonsense party" of "common sense" that would appeal to Dutch voters who saw the VVD as having grown too left, the PVV as too right and the Forum for Democracy as having lost its course and that JA21 would stick to the "original points" of the FvD.
Eerdmans was appointed party leader and lijsttrekker of JA21. JA21 gained 3 seats in the parliament and he returned as an MP to the House of Representatives for the first time since 2006. A motion by Eerdmans and Chris Stoffer (SGP) advocating a ban on face coverings during protests was carried by the House in September 2024. Eerdmans argued they prevented the police from identifying individuals breaking the law, citing pro-Palestinian protesters on university campuses as an example. The House later adopted another motion by Eerdmans in which he called on the government to revoke environment pressure group Extinction Rebellion's designation as a charitable organization. He described it as an "unlawful, society-disruptive, and vandalistic organization" that should not be able to receive tax-deductible donations.
When the right-wing Schoof cabinet presented its 2025 budget that included €2 billion in education cuts, Eerdmans formed the self-named "unholy alliance" with other centrist and conservative opposition parties. To gain support in the Senate, the governing coalition agreed in December 2024 to reverse €750 million of the cuts. Eerdmans did not embrace the revised budget, declaring that "a lot of ugly things remained".

## Broadcasting career

Eerdmans was a television host on the Dutch channel Het Gesprek and has been a columnist for the website GeenStijl. He was also one of the hosts of the Dutch programme TROS Regelrecht and was a presenter on the BNR Newsradio show Peptalk in 2010. He then presented the NPO Radio 1 discussion show Evening Rush Hour from 2010 and 2013. He also serves on the panel for the annual Pim Fortuyn Prize which is awarded to politicians, commentators or public figures who best convey the ideas of Pim Fortuyn.

## Personal life

Eerdmans is married to Femke Bouka since 2006. He was raised in the Dutch Reformed Church, but later lost his faith and became an atheist; despite this, he and his wife, who is also an atheist, married in church.

## Electoral history

Electoral history of Joost Eerdmans :
| Year | Body | Party | Party | Pos. | Votes | Result | Result | Ref. |
| Year | Body | Party | Party | Pos. | Votes | Party seats | Individual | Ref. |
| 2002 | House of Representatives | | Pim Fortuyn List | 19 | 701 | 26 | Won | |
| 2003 | House of Representatives | | Pim Fortuyn List | 2 | 6,918 | 8 | Won | |
| 2006 | House of Representatives | | One NL | 2 | 7,046 | 0 | Lost | |
| 2010 | Capelle aan den IJssel Municipal Council | | Livable Capelle | | 1,029 | 9 | Won | |
| 2014 | Rotterdam Municipal Council | | Livable Rotterdam | 1 | 44,979 | 14 | Won | |
| 2018 | Rotterdam Municipal Council | | Livable Rotterdam | 1 | | 11 | Won | |
| 2021 | House of Representatives | | JA21 | 1 | 197,637 | 3 | Won | |
| 2022 | Rotterdam Municipal Council | | Livable Rotterdam | 49 | 1,975 | 10 | Won | |
| 2023 | House of Representatives | | JA21 | 1 | 53,675 | 1 | Won | |
| 2024 | European Parliament | | JA21 | 15 | 5,994 | 0 | Lost | |