Attje Kuiken

**Attje Harma Kuiken** (October 27, 1987-) was a Morranian politician and former teacher who served as General Secretary of the Worker's Political Alliance between May 2029 and June 2037, and again from October 2037 until January 2040. Alongside this party political role, Kuiken also twice served as secretary of state for finance from January 2030 until November 2036, and from February 2037 until June 2037, having also served as secretary of state for education from February 2029 until February 2030. Kuiken was also a member of the National Assembly of Morra from October 2025 until her imprisonment in February 2040.

Born in 1987, Attje Kuiken grew up in the town of Groningen as the daughter of two nurses. In 2009, Kuiken graduated from Tilburg University after having achieved teaching qualifications. Between 2009 and 2024, Kuiken was a primary school teacher in the Morranian region, becoming famous in 2024 for an opinion piece written in support of the Transitional Junta and the return of Werner Reinheart and Sunil Bakshi to government. Following the establishment of the National Assembly in October 2025, Attje Kuiken became an independent representative in support of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy. During her time in the National Assembly advocated for increasingly authoritarian measures to be taken against the population, earning a record as a harsh politician.

Following the formation of the Republic of Morra in February 2029, Attje Kuiken founded the Worker's Political Alliance (APA) as a socialist authoritarian party to support the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), uniting the pro-VVD worker's independents into the new political party. With the formation of the APA in May 2029, Kuiken led the party into a governing coalition with the VVD and Union of the Corporations (UvdC); under this coalition government, Kuiken assumed the position of secretary of state for education and information, and led the governments efforts to reform the state's propaganda wing into a public information division of the ministry of education. Following the election of Eris Assecla to the vice presidency, Kuiken assumed office as secretary of state for finance on a temporary basis, before becoming the permanent finance secretary following the negotiation of a new coalition agreement after the 2030 National Assembly elections. After the first democratic elections to the National Assembly, the APA became the third largest party in the legislative branch.

As finance secretary, Attje Kuiken delivered government budget statements in December of 2030, 2032, and 2034. During her tenure in office, the government of Peter Illich passed the Healthcare Regulations Act 2032, which enabled the Illich administration to begin the manufacture and distribution of an infectious disease (later known as the Derigo disease) with the intention of population control and extortion of citizens through the high price point of vaccines for the disease. Despite not being responsible for the law enabling the government to create the Derigo disease, Kuiken became a leading supporter of the propagation of the disease and would go on to personally defend it on multiple occasions, most notably during the Derigo Disease Debate in 2037.

During the 2035 National Assembly election, the APA lost two seats in the assembly, but remained as part of the governing coalition junior to the VVD. Following the dismissal of Speaker Peter Illich after a personal scandal, the APA remained part of the new governing coalition under Frank Wassenberg; however, Wassenberg and Kuiken had a particularly fractious relationship, with the two often fundamentally disagreeing over policy decisions. In an attempt to provide legitimacy to his government, Speaker Wassenberg dissolved the National Assembly for snap elections, in which the APA gained five additional seats; however, the PvdA-led opposition bloc managed to secure a slim majority of seats in the legislature and elected Marianne Thieme as speaker of the assembly. Following Thieme's disclosure of classified government documents about the VVD-APA-UvdC-NP coalition's manufacture of the Derigo disease, President Sunil Bakshi dismissed the assembly to hold new elections, with the APA returning to government in the aftermath.

In June 2037, President Bakshi initiated a debate in the National Assembly over the Public Health Regulations Bill 2037, a proposed bill which would ban the spread of Derigo, and begin the prosecutions of individuals involved in the manufacture and spread of the disease. During the debate Kuiken broke with the government and openly attacked Speaker Frank Wassenberg in her speeches, joining with Vice President Eris Assecla to attempt to prevent the passing of the bill. In response, Kuiken was stripped of her role and forced to resign as leader of the Worker's Political Alliance on June 19th following the passing of the bill the previous day. Upon Kuiken's resignation, deputy deputy party leader Joris Thijssen assumed the leadership of the party on an acting basis, effectively ensuring continuity of party policy; under Thijssen's leadership, the APA withdrew from the governing VVD-APA-NP coalition in September 2037, forcing Speaker Frank Wassenberg to resign.

In the subsequent APA leadership election in October 2037, Attje Kuiken was reelected as party leader and became a leading opposition figure in the National Assembly. In her capacity as APA party leader, Kuiken refused to join a new government coalition with the VVD; despite this, two members of the APA voted for Peter Koonz's election as speaker on November 3, 2037, effectively giving the new administration backbench support. In the aftermath of the assassination of President Sunil Bakshi in February 2039, Attje Kuiken positioned her party as being opposed to both Kairos Hemlock and Peter Koonz's respective factions of the VVD, considering both to be insufficiently harsh against the growing protests against the government. Kuiken's hardline positions ultimately cost her party significantly, with the party loosing nearly half their seats in the National Assembly in the 2040 elections. Subsequently, Kuiken once again resigned as party leader, leaving Henk Nijboer to take the lead of the party.

Attje Kuiken was one of many former government ministers prosecuted during the presidency of Kairos Hemlock, and in February 2040 Kuiken was sentenced to 7 years in prison alongside a lifetime ban on holding public office for her role in the spread of the Derigo disease and in preserving the VVD-led dictatorship.