page_title: Jan Peter Balkenende
section_title: Early political career
hierarchical_section_title: Jan Peter Balkenende / Early political career
caption_attribution_description: English: CATHERINE PALACE, TSARSKOYE SELO. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi (right) and Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende at the official lunch in honour of the heads of state and their spouses who arrived in St Petersburg to mark the city\'s 300th anniversary.Русский: ЦАРСКОЕ СЕЛО, ЕКАТЕРИНИНСКИЙ ДВОРЕЦ. Председатель Совета министров Италии Сильвио Берлускони (справа) и Премьер-министр Нидерландов Ян Петер Балкененде на официальном завтраке в честь глав иностранных государств и их супруг, прибывших на празднование 300-летия Санкт-Петербурга.
context_page_description: Jan Pieter "Jan Peter" Balkenende Jr. is a retired Dutch politician of the Christian Democratic Appeal party and jurist who served as Prime Minister of the Netherlands from 22 July 2002 to 14 October 2010.
  Balkenende studied History and Law at the Free University Amsterdam obtaining Master of Arts and law degrees and worked as a legal counsel for the academic council of his alma mater before finishing his thesis and graduated as a PhD in governmental studies and worked as a professor of Christian theology at his alma mater from April 1993 until May 2002. After the election of 1998 Balkenende was elected as a Member of the House of Representatives on 19 May 1998 and served as a frontbencher and spokesperson for Finances and as deputy parliamentary leader. After Party Leader and Parliamentary leader Jaap de Hoop Scheffer stepped down before a upcoming election Balkenende announced his candidacy and was selected as his successor on 1 October 2001. For the election of 2002 Balkenende served as Lijsttrekker and after a cabinet formation with the Pim Fortuyn List and Liberals formed the Cabinet Balkenende I and became Prime Minister of the Netherlands taking office 22 July 2002.
context_section_description: He began his career on the staff of the research institute of the CDA and as a city councilman in Amstelveen. In 1992 he received his PhD with a thesis on "Governance regulation and social organisations" (Overheidsregelgeving en maatschappelijke organisaties), a strongly inspired by the Communitarian ideas of Amitai Etzioni. One year later in 1993, he became an extraordinary professor of Christian-Social Thought at the Free University of Amsterdam.
  Balkenende first entered the House of Representatives on 19 May 1998 while the CDA was in opposition. He became the CDA's financial spokesman and was also involved with social affairs, justice, and domestic affairs. In this role he advocated a substantial reduction of the national debt and sound public finances.
  He was elected Chairman of the CDA parliamentary fraction on 1 October 2001, succeeding Jaap de Hoop Scheffer. On 3 November 2001, he was appointed lijsttrekker for the CDA in the tumultuous May 2002 parliamentary elections. These elections restored the CDA's former position as the largest political party in the House of Representatives.
caption: Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende and Prime Minister of Italy Silvio Berlusconi in Moscow on 31 May 2003.
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