Femke Merel van Kooten

Femke Merel van Kooten-Arissen (born 9 November 1983) is a Dutch politician and former member of the House of Representatives.

Femke Merel van Kooten
Femke Merel van Kooten-Arissen in 2017
Parliamentary leader in the
House of Representatives
In office
6 August 2020 – 31 March 2021
Parliamentary groupIndependent
In office
16 July 2019 – 3 May 2020
Parliamentary groupIndependent
Member of the House
of Representatives
In office
4 February 2019 – 31 March 2021
Parliamentary groupParty for the Animals (2019)
Independent (2019–2020)
Group Krol/Van Kooten (2020)
Independent (from 2020)
In office
23 March 2017 – 15 October 2018
Parliamentary groupParty for the Animals
Personal details
Born
Femke Merel Arissen

(1983-11-09) 9 November 1983
Huizen, Netherlands
Political partyIndependent (from 2020)
Other political
affiliations		Party for the Animals (2003–2019)
Independent (2019–2020)
Party for the Future (2020)
Residence(s)Utrecht, Netherlands
Alma materUtrecht University
(Bachelor of Laws)
OccupationPolitician · Jurist · Political consultant · Activist
In this Dutch name, the surname is Van Kooten, not Kooten.

She was first elected in the 2017 general election, in which she stood as a member of the Party for the Animals (Partij voor de Dieren - PvdD).[1] From 15 October 2018 to 4 February 2019, she was on maternity leave from Parliament.

On 16 July 2019, she left the PvdD and became an independent MP. In December 2019, she joined 50Plus but remained an independent member of parliament.[2] She left 50Plus in May 2020 together with its leader Henk Krol, forming the Party for the Future (Partij voor de Toekomst - PvdT).

After about three months, in early August 2020, she left the PvdT in opposition to its merger with Group Otten (Groep Otten - GO), a party formed by former members of the far right Forum for Democracy (Forum voor Democratie - FVD). The merger had been arranged by Krol without her knowledge. Once again, she became an independent member of parliament, and remained so for the rest of the parliamentary term.[3] The Party for the Future was eventually completely dissolved before the end of 2020.

For the general election in 2021, van Kooten formed her own party named Splinter,[4] and was the party's lead candidate (lijsttrekker). However, Splinter received only 30,000 votes,[5] less than half of the 70,000 vote threshold required for a seat. As a result, she did not return to the House of Representatives.

References
  1. Maarten van Ast (16 July 2019). "Partij voor de Dieren royeert Van Kooten vanwege 'zetelroof'" [Party for the Animals expels Van Kooten for 'seat robbery']. Algemeen Dagblad (in Dutch).
  2. "Voormalig PvdD-Kamerlid Van Kooten-Arissen sinds december lid van 50Plus" [Former PvdD Member of Parliament Van Kooten-Arissen has been a member of 50Plus since December]. NU (in Dutch). 5 February 2020. Retrieved 5 February 2020.
  3. Peter Winterman (5 August 2020). "Femke Merel van Kooten vertrekt bij nieuwe partij Henk Krol: 'Ik laat me niet langer muilkorven'" [Femke Merel van Kooten leaves new party Henk Krol: 'I will no longer be muzzled']. Algemeen Dagblad (in Dutch).
  4. Peter Winterman (21 December 2020). "Femke Merel van Kooten begint eigen partij: Splinter" [Member of Parliament Femke Merel van Kooten starts her own party: Splinter]. Algemeen Dagblad (in Dutch).
  5. "Tweede Kamer 17 Maart 2021" [House of Representatives 17 March 2021]. Kiesraad (in Dutch). Retrieved 1 April 2021.


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