page_title: Ivo Opstelten
section_title: Politics
hierarchical_section_title: Ivo Opstelten / Biography / Politics
caption_attribution_description: Nederlands: Afscheid mr. Pieter van Vollenhoven als voorzitter van de Onderzoeksraad voor Veiligheid; samen met zijn echtgenote prinses Margriet en minister Ivo Opstelten
context_page_description: Ivo Willem Opstelten is a retired Dutch politician and jurist. He is a member of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy.
  Opstelten applied at Leiden University in May 1963 majoring in Law and obtaining an Bachelor of Laws degree in June 1965 before graduating with an Master of Laws degree in July 1969. Opstelten worked as a civil servant for the municipality of Vlaardingen from January 1970 until Augustus 1972. In Augustus 1972 Opstelten was nominated as Mayor of Dalen, taking office on 26 August 1972. In September 1977 Opstelten was nominated as Mayor of Doorn, he resigned as Mayor of Dalen the same day he was installed as Mayor of Doorn, taking office on 1 October 1977. In November 1980 Opstelten was nominated as Mayor of Delfzijl, he resigned as Mayor of Doorn the same day he was installed as Mayor of Delfzijl, taking office on 1 December 1980. Opstelten served as acting Mayor of Beerta from 1 December 1983 until 1 March 1984 during a parental leave of Hanneke Jagersma.
context_section_description: In 1972 Opstelten began as Mayor of Dalen, at the age of 28 the youngest Mayor of the Netherlands. In 1977 he became Mayor of Doorn. In 1980 he became the Mayor of Delfzijl. In 1983 he became Acting Mayor of Beerta for four months because of the pregnancy of Mayor Hanneke Jagersma. In 1992 he made the switch to the fourth largest Municipality of the Netherlands, Utrecht. In 1999 he was nominated as Mayor of Rotterdam, the second biggest city of the Netherlands. In 2002 he was praised for his handling of the aftermath of the assassination of politician Pim Fortuyn. He served as Mayor of Rotterdam for ten years. He resigned on January 1, 2009. He was succeeded by Ahmed Aboutaleb. On March 31, 2008, he was elected as the new Party chair of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy. On November 6, 2009, it was announced by Wim van de Donk, the Queen's Commissioner of North Brabant, that Opstelten had accepted the position as Acting Mayor of Tilburg after Mayor Ruud Vreeman's resignation was sought by the City council of Tilburg.
  On August 4, 2010, Queen Beatrix nominated Opstelten as fifth informateur in the 2010 Dutch cabinet formation. On September 4, the Queen replaced Opstelten with Herman Tjeenk Willink, the Vice President of the Council of State as the new informateur. On September 13, 2010 he became informateur a second time and on September 28 the negotiations were finished. A coalition agreement was reached between People's Party for Freedom and Democracy and Christian Democratic Appeal to form a minority coalition, supported by the Party for Freedom to obtain a majority. Formateur Mark Rutte asked Opstelten as the Minister of Security and Justice in the new cabinet. Because a Party chair can not serve in the cabinet, he resigned as a Party chair of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy on October 14, 2010, the same day he took office as the new Minister of Security and Justice.
  During his tenure as Minister of Security and Justice, Opstelten was the driving force behind the closure of the majority of The Netherlands' coffeeshops and growshops effectively ending the successful 1970's instituted experiment where soft drugs were tolerated and separated from the hard drugs market. Affiliated with the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) party, Opstelten also imposed many restrictions on the legal and regulated prostitution business in the Netherlands also driving a portion of that business underground.
  In the week after his resignation from office, he was interviewed about the increased use of heavy firearms by criminals. He said that maybe in the past firearms didn't have the attention of the authorities, but now they rose to the challenge and he was on it. In reality he had quietly disbanded the task force on heavy weapons two months earlier.
caption: Princess Margriet, Pieter van Vollenhoven and Minister of Security and Justice Ivo Opstelten at a meeting on 7 February 2011.
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