Eberhard Edzard van der Laan (; 28 June 1955 – 5 October 2017) was a Dutch politician who served as Minister for Housing, Communities and Integration from 2008 to 2010 and

Mayor of Amsterdam Below is a list of Burgomaster, mayors (Dutch language, Dutch: ''burgemeesters'') of Amsterdam, capital of the Netherlands. The city had four burgomasters, serving four years. Since 1389 the mayors were elected on 1 February. In the 17th and 18th ...

from 2010 until his death in 2017. He was a member of the Labour Party (PvdA). Van der Laan, a lawyer by occupation, worked for the Trenité Van Doorne Advocaten law firm from 1982 until 1992 when he co-founded the Kennedy Van der Laan law firm and served as a partner until 2008. After

Ella Vogelaar Catharina Pieternella "Ella" Vogelaar (23 December 1949 – 7 October 2019) was a Dutch politician of the Labour Party (PvdA) and trade union leader. Political career After graduating from the HBS in Zierikzee she attended the social academy ...

— Minister for Housing, Communities and Integration in the

Fourth Balkenende cabinet The fourth Balkenende cabinet was the executive branch of the Government of the Netherlands from 22 February 2007 until 14 October 2010. The cabinet was formed by the Christian-democratic Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) and Christian Unio ...

—resigned because the Leader of the Labour Party

Wouter Bos Wouter Jacob Bos (; (born 14 July 1963) is a retired Dutch politician of the Labour Party (PvdA) and businessman. Bos attended the Christian Gymnasium in Zeist from June 1975 until July 1980 and applied at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam ...

lost his confidence in her position after increasing criticism on her performance, Van der Laan was asked to succeed her and took office on 14 November 2008. The

fell on 23 February 2010 as the result of disagreement between the

Christian Democratic Appeal The Christian Democratic Appeal ( nl, Christen-Democratisch Appèl, ; CDA) is a Christian-democratic political party in the Netherlands. It was originally formed in 1977 from a confederation of the Catholic People's Party, the Anti-Revolution ...

(CDA) and the Labour Party over the extension of

ISAF ' ps, کمک او همکاري ' , allies = Afghanistan , opponents = Taliban Al-Qaeda , commander1 = , commander1_label = Commander , commander2 = , commander2_label = , commander3 = , command ...

mission in

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

. On 27 January 2017 it was revealed that Van der Laan had

terminal Terminal may refer to: Computing Hardware * Terminal (electronics), a device for joining electrical circuits together * Terminal (telecommunication), a device communicating over a line * Computer terminal, a set of primary input and output dev ...

lung cancer Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma (since about 98–99% of all lung cancers are carcinomas), is a malignant lung tumor characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. Lung carcinomas derive from transformed, malign ...

. On 18 September 2017 he published a letter entitled "Dear Amsterdammers", in which he revealed that all options of treatment had been exhausted and that with immediate effect he would take a leave of absence and the mayoral tasks would be taken up by

Kajsa Ollongren Jkvr. Karin Hildur "Kajsa" Ollongren (; ; born 28 May 1967) is a Dutch politician serving as the Netherlands' Minister of Defence since 10 January 2022. A member of the Democrats 66 (D66), she previously served as Minister of the Interior and ...

. He died seventeen days later.

Early life

Van der Laan was born in

Rijnsburg Rijnsburg () is a village in the eastern part of the municipality of Katwijk, in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. The name means Rhine's Burg in Dutch. History The history starts way before the 2th century when there wa ...

, a small town nearby

Leiden Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wi ...

. Van der Laan graduated in 1983 cum laude in law at the ''

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam The Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (abbreviated as ''VU Amsterdam'' or simply ''VU'' when in context) is a public research university in Amsterdam, Netherlands, being founded in 1880. The VU Amsterdam is one of two large, publicly funded research ...

''. He co-founded the law firm of Kennedy Van der Laan.

Politics

Local politics

Van der Laan began his political career as assistant to Amsterdam

alderman An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council member chosen by the elected members t ...

Jan Schaefer. From 1990-98 he was a member of the Amsterdam

municipal council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural counc ...

, from 1993 as the chair of the Labour Party group. After leaving politics he became a full-time lawyer.

National politics

In 2006 he was ''informateur'' in the negotiations of the new Amsterdam ''

college van burgemeester en wethouders In the Netherlands, the municipal executive (, ) is the executive board of a municipality. It plays a central role in municipal politics in the Netherlands, similar to the communal college in Belgium. It consists of the mayor and the members of ...

''.Burgemeester Van Der Laan van Amsterdam
elsevierweekblad.nl (in Dutch). In the local elections, politicians were criticized by Van der Laan for distributing election leaflets in minority languages and in some cases leaflets were collected. On 14 November 2008 he succeeded

as Minister for Housing, Communities and Integration in the

Fourth cabinet Balkenende The fourth Balkenende cabinet was the executive branch of the Government of the Netherlands from 22 February 2007 until 14 October 2010. The cabinet was formed by the Christian-democratic Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) and Christian Union ...

. On 23 June 2010 he was nominated by the Amsterdam

to become

; the nomination was accepted by the King's Commissioner of North Holland.

Death

On 27 January 2017 it was revealed that Van der Laan had

metastatic Metastasis is a pathogenic agent's spread from an initial or primary site to a different or secondary site within the host's body; the term is typically used when referring to metastasis by a cancerous tumor. The newly pathological sites, then, ...

. He died on 5 October 2017 from this disease at the age of 62.

Decorations

References

External links

;Official *
Mr. E.E. (Eberhard) van der Laan
Parlement & Politiek {{DEFAULTSORT:Laan, Eberhard van der 1955 births 2017 deaths Deaths from cancer in the Netherlands Deaths from lung cancer Dutch jurists Dutch republicans Dutch political consultants Dutch speechwriters Labour Party (Netherlands) politicians Mayors of Amsterdam Ministers without portfolio of the Netherlands Municipal councillors of Amsterdam Officers of the Order of Orange-Nassau Reformed Churches Christians from the Netherlands People from Leiden Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam alumni 20th-century Dutch lawyers 20th-century Dutch politicians 21st-century Dutch lawyers 21st-century Dutch politicians