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Wybren van Haga
Wybren Ridley van Haga (born 31 January 1967) is a Dutch politician and engineer who was a member of the House of Representatives between 2017 and 2023. He was initially elected as a member of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), but was expelled from the party in 2019, causing the third Rutte cabinet to lose its parliamentary majority. Van Haga subsequently sat as an independent MP before joining Thierry Baudet's Forum for Democracy party, where he was placed second on the party list in the 2021 election. He has since quit Forum for Democracy and created his own political party Belang van Nederland. Early life, education and military serviceVan Haga was born in 1967 in The Hague and grew up in Haarlem. His father is Dutch and his mother was originally from Britain.[1] He completed the gymnasium with the natural sciences specialization. He studied electrical engineering at the Delft University of Technology.[2] He also completed the first phase of a law study at Leiden University. He served his mandatory military service as a commando.[2] Business careerHe subsequently worked as an engineer for the Shell Oil Company, and was based variously in Scotland, Gabon and Oman before starting a property development business.[3] Political careerVan Haga first joined the VVD in 1992. In 2010, he was elected as a municipal councilor in Haarlem.[4] During the 2017 general election, he was elected as an MP for the VVD in the House of Representatives. During the election, his candidacy was endorsed by Labour Party politician and former mayor of Haarlem Bernt Schneiders.[5] In 2017, Van Haga was investigated over an alleged concealment of a number of problems with local regulations during his time as a councilor.[6] In 2019, he was expelled from the VVD parliamentary group after he was convicted for drunk driving and accused of interfering with his business operation as an MP.[7] This caused the third Rutte cabinet to lose their parliamentary majority. Van Haga subsequently sat as an independent before announcing he had become a member of the Forum for Democracy party.[8] Van Haga already had close ties with the FvD group as an independent. Van Haga left FvD together with two others in response to a poster put out by the party which compared the COVID-19 lockdowns to the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. He has since created his own political party called Belang van Nederland (BVNL). The new party had three seats in the House of Representatives.[a] Van Haga has described it as 'classical liberal' and 'classical right-wing'.[9] He ran for re-election in November 2023, but BVNL did not win any seats. He again led his party in the June 2024 European Parliament election, but the BVNL's vote share of 0.4% was insufficient for a seat.[10][11] Personal lifeVan Haga is married and has four children.[1] Electoral history
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