Dilan Yeşilgöz-Zegerius

Dilan Yeşilgöz-Zegerius (born 18 June 1977) is a Dutch politician who has served as the Leader of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy since 2023. She also serves as the Minister of Justice and Security in the Fourth Rutte cabinet since 10 January 2022. Yesilgöz has previously served as a member of the House of Representatives from 2017 to 2021 and State Secretary for Economic Affairs and Climate Policy from 2021 until 2022.
Early life
Yeşilgöz-Zegerius was born in Ankara, Turkey, and emigrated to the Netherlands as a child. Her mother is from a Turkish origin and her father is Kurdish and originally from Tunceli. Her mother, Fatma Özgümüş, is the director of the Netherlands Refugee Organization (VON). Her father, Yücel Yeşilgöz, a left-wing trade unionist, escaped from Turkey and sought asylum in the Netherlands in 1980, after the 1980 coup. Dilan Yeşilgöz escaped to the Greek island of Kos in 1984 by boat, along with her mother and sister, at the age of 7. Later she became a refugee from there, getting asylum in the Netherlands.
After attending her secondary education at the Vallei College in Amersfoort between 1991 and 1997, Yeşilgöz then studied social and cultural sciences at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam where she obtained a Master's degree in Culture, Organization and Management in 2003.
Political career
Yeşilgöz-Zegerius started her political career at the Socialist Party, where Yesilgöz was a board member for the Amersfoort branch of the party. After this she started writing for the youth delegation of the Labour Party and followed an internship at GroenLinks.
From 2014 to 2017, Yeşilgöz-Zegerius held a seat in the municipal council of Amsterdam. She was placed fourth on the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy list in the 2014 municipal election. As a councilor, Yeşilgöz committed to tackling and criminalizing street harassment of LGBT people and women. She worked on this in the city council for three years, but proposals were always rejected by a majority. When she left for the House of Representatives in 2017, then mayor Eberhard van der Laan praised her tenacity. He called it his farewell gift to Yeşilgöz that there would be an integrated approach to street intimidation in Amsterdam, based on a proposal she had submitted with Marijke Shashavari of the CDA at the time. A majority of the city council approved this proposal. De Volkskrant characterized her tenacious nature as a "pit bull with empathy".
Yeşilgöz-Zegerius was elected to the House of Representatives in the 2017 general election. She initially served as her party's spokesperson for justice and security, but her portfolio later included climate policy and energy policy. On 25 May 2021, Yesilgöz was appointed State Secretary for Economic Affairs and Climate Policy in the demissionary third Rutte cabinet, serving alongside Mona Keijzer. On 10 January 2022, she was appointed Minister of Justice and Security in the fourth Rutte cabinet.
On 12 July, two days after Mark Rutte's resignation, Yeşilgöz-Zegerius announced her candidacy to become the next Leader of the VVD. The following day, the party board formally nominated her for the position. On 14 August, Yesilgöz officially became party leader of the VVD.
Political positions
As Minister of Justice and Security, Yesilgöz advocated for criminal justice reform and strict policies against terrorism and organized crime. She supported laws to protect journalists who had been threatened for their work and supports deporting extremist imams from the Schengen area. In 2019, Yesilgöz called for a ban on "single shots" and heavy flares within the F2 category of the Fireworks policy in the European Union, a policy idea which was opposed by the rest of the VVD. She also supported mandatory use of body cameras for police officers.
In 2019, Yesilgöz argued that Dutch ISIS terrorists detained by Kurdish forces should be tried on the spot rather than be repatriated to the Netherlands. She also argued in favour of blocking the repatriation of ISIS members, an idea which was opposed by coalition parties D66 and ChristenUnie who argued they should face trial in the Netherlands.
In 2022, Yesilgöz delivered the annual Hendrik Jan Schoo lecture entitled "Doing What It Takes to Protect Our Democratic Rule of Law" in which she criticised wokeism, far-right politicians and conspiracy theorists and argued that the Dutch constitutional state is under pressure from left-wing activism.
Yesilgöz considers Frits Bolkestein as her main liberal role model.
Personal life
Yesilgöz married René Zegerius in 2013.
Yeşilgöz is an Ajax supporter and a country music fan. She has a dog named Moos and a tattoo on her wrist with her grandmother's name, Sara.
References
External links
1977 births
21st-century Dutch women politicians
21st-century Dutch politicians
Dutch people of Kurdish descent
Dutch people of Turkish descent
Female justice ministers
Living people
Members of the House of Representatives (Netherlands)
Ministers of Justice of the Netherlands
Municipal councillors of Amsterdam
People's Party for Freedom and Democracy politicians
Politicians from Amsterdam
Politicians from Ankara
State Secretaries for Economic Affairs of the Netherlands
Turkish emigrants to the Netherlands
Women government ministers of the Netherlands