Marie-Fleur Agema (; born 16 September 1976) is a Dutch former spatial designer and politician affiliated with the

Party for Freedom The Party for Freedom ( , PVV) is a right-wing populist, far-right political party in the Netherlands. Geert Wilders is the founder, party leader, and sole registered member of the party. Founded in 2006 as the successor to Wilders' one-ma ...

(PVV). From 2 July 2024 to 3 June 2025, she served as first Deputy Prime Minister of the Netherlands and Minister of Health, Welfare and Sport in the

Schoof cabinet The Schoof cabinet is the current demissionary cabinet of the Netherlands, sworn in on 2 July 2024. Led by independent politician and civil servant Dick Schoof as prime minister of the Netherlands, the cabinet was formed after the 2023 Dutch gen ...

. Agema previously served as a member of the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entities. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often ...

from 30 November 2006 to 2 July 2024.

Early life

Agema was born in

Purmerend Purmerend () is a city and municipality in the west of the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. The city is surrounded by polders, such as the Purmer, Beemster and the Wormer. Purmerend's population grew relatively slowly until the 1960s ...

North Holland North Holland (, ) is a Provinces of the Netherlands, province of the Netherlands in the northwestern part of the country. It is located on the North Sea, north of South Holland and Utrecht (province), Utrecht, and west of Friesland and Flevola ...

, and grew up in

Monnickendam Monnickendam () is a city in the Netherlands, Dutch province of North Holland. It is a part of the municipality of Waterland, and lies on the coast of the Markermeer, about southeast of Purmerend. It received City rights in the Netherlands, city ...

and

Wormerveer Wormerveer is a town in the Dutch province of North Holland. It is a part of the municipality of Zaanstad, and lies about 13 km (8 miles) northwest of Amsterdam. Wormerveer developed in the 15th century on the west bank of the Zaan river. ...

. Her parents ran a business in the hospitality industry. She obtained a BA degree from the AKI ArtEZ University of the Arts in 1999, an MA degree in

Architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and construction, constructi ...

from the Academy of Architecture of the

Amsterdam University of the Arts The Amsterdam University of the Arts () is a Dutch institute for higher professional education located in Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Ki ...

in 2001, and an MA degree in

Fine Art In European academic traditions, fine art (or, fine arts) is made primarily for aesthetics or creative expression, distinguishing it from popular art, decorative art or applied art, which also either serve some practical function (such as ...

from the

Utrecht School of the Arts The Utrecht School for the Arts () is a performing arts and visual arts educational institution in City of Utrecht, Province of Utrecht, Netherlands. The school opened for student enrollment in September 1987. Overview The institution has 6 ...

in 2004. From 1999 to 2003, she worked as a spatial designer and project leader for an architectural firm.

Career

Provincial Council and House of Representatives

In March 2003, she was elected to the

Provincial Council of North Holland The Provincial Council of North Holland (, ), also known as the States of North Holland, is the provincial council of North Holland, Netherlands. It forms the legislative body of the province. Its 55 seats are distributed every four years in pro ...

, as a member of the

Pim Fortuyn List The Pim Fortuyn List (, LPF) was a political party in the Netherlands that existed from 2002 to 2008 at a national level and was named after its eponymous founder Pim Fortuyn, a former university professor and political columnist. The party was ...

(LPF). On 17 October 2003, she said had lost confidence in the governing board of the Pim Fortuyn List with two other State members of the LPF. In 2004, she left the party, because of dissatisfaction with the continuing internal dispute. She continued as a member of the provincial council as an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

. In 2004, she was a founding member of the Forza! Nederland party alongside former Pim Fortuyn List provincial council representative

Paul Meijer Paul Ronald Johan Meijer (born 27 March 1985) is a Dutch racing driver. He is a former Benelux Formula Renault champion. He currently competes in the Porsche Carrera Cup Benelux for Hans Weijs Motorsport. Early life Meijer was born 27 Ma ...

, however she left shortly after its founding to join the

. In this same year, she was also noted as being active on the

neo-Nazi Neo-Nazism comprises the post–World War II militant, social, and political movements that seek to revive and reinstate Nazism, Nazi ideology. Neo-Nazis employ their ideology to promote hatred and Supremacism#Racial, racial supremacy (ofte ...

internet forum Stormfront which uses the slogan "White Pride World Wide". In 2006, she was asked by

Geert Wilders Geert Wilders (born 6 September 1963) is a Dutch politician who has led the far-right Party for Freedom (PVV) since he founded it in 2006. He is also the party's leader in the House of Representatives. Wilders is best known for his right-wing p ...

, the

party leader In a governmental system, a party leader acts as the official representative of their political party, either to a legislature or to the electorate. Depending on the country, the individual colloquially referred to as the "leader" of a politica ...

of the newly formed

, to join him on and get the second place on the list of candidates. In November 2006 she was chosen as a member of the

Dutch House of Representatives The House of Representatives ( , literally "Second Chamber of the States General", or simply ) is the lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliament of the Netherlands, the States General of the Netherlands, States General, the other one ...

. She left the provincial council on 14 March 2007. As an MP her main specialties are

education Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education als ...

healthcare Health care, or healthcare, is the improvement or maintenance of health via the preventive healthcare, prevention, diagnosis, therapy, treatment, wikt:amelioration, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other disability, physic ...

spatial planning Spatial planning mediates between the respective claims on space of the state, market, and community. In so doing, three different mechanisms of involving stakeholders, integrating sectoral policies and promoting development projects mark the th ...

and

infrastructure Infrastructure is the set of facilities and systems that serve a country, city, or other area, and encompasses the services and facilities necessary for its economy, households and firms to function. Infrastructure is composed of public and pri ...

. She advocated to raise the minimum age for

sex workers A sex worker is a person who provides sex work, either on a regular or occasional basis. The term is used in reference to those who work in all areas of the sex industry.Oxford English Dictionary, "sex worker" According to one view, sex work is vo ...

from 18 to 21, leading to the change being enacted. Agema received a sixth term in the 2023 general election, and her portfolio changed to disability care and elderly care.

Minister of Health, Welfare and Sport

After the PVV,

VVD The People's Party for Freedom and Democracy ( , VVD) is a conservative-liberal political party in the Netherlands. The VVD, whose forerunner was the Freedom Party, is a party of the centre-right that tries to promote private enterprise and ...

NSC NSC may refer to: Banking and investment * National Sort Code, an Irish bank code * Nomura Securities Co, an investment bank Computing * National Software Centre, an Irish organization * National Supercomputer Centre in Sweden * NetShow Channe ...

, and BBB formed the

, Agema was sworn in as First Deputy Prime Minister and as Minister of Health, Welfare and Sport on 2 July 2024. Departing from previous practice, Prime Minister

Dick Schoof Hendrikus Wilhelmus Maria "Dick" Schoof (born 8 March 1957) is a Dutch politician and civil servant serving as the prime minister of the Netherlands of the Schoof cabinet since 2 July 2024. Schoof previously worked as secretary-general of the M ...

did not let Agema chair the weekly meeting of the

Council of Ministers Council of Ministers is a traditional name given to the supreme Executive (government), executive organ in some governments. It is usually equivalent to the term Cabinet (government), cabinet. The term Council of State is a similar name that also m ...

during his foreign trips, opting instead to move the date of the meeting. Agema chaired the meeting for the first time in February 2025, when Schoof was ill. Responding to personnel shortages in the healthcare sector, Agema said that they could largely be resolved through new

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...

technologies, and she indicated that she would introduce legislation to allow their usage. The governing agreement of the Schoof cabinet clarified it aims to halve time spent on administrative tasks by healthcare workers. It also included a reduction of the minimum

health insurance Health insurance or medical insurance (also known as medical aid in South Africa) is a type of insurance that covers the whole or a part of the risk of a person incurring medical expenses. As with other types of insurance, risk is shared among ma ...

deductible In an insurance policy, the deductible (in British English, the excess) is the amount paid Out-of-pocket expenses, out of pocket by the policy holder before an insurance provider will pay any expenses. In general usage, the term ''deductible'' m ...

from €385 to €165 starting in 2027. Agema was tasked with extending the Integral Care Agreement, established in 2022 to maintain affordable and accessible healthcare for an

ageing population Ageing (or aging in American English) is the process of becoming older until death. The term refers mainly to humans, many other animals, and fungi; whereas for example, bacteria, perennial plants and some simple animals are potentially biol ...

. A revised agreement was planned for January 2024. However, municipalities pulled out of the agreement in November 2024, citing insufficient funding. When an alliance of coalition and opposition parties agreed two weeks later to cut the healthcare budget by an additional €315 million, five more professional and trade associations pulled out. Agema expressed concern over the cuts, particularly those affecting additional and refresher training for medical specialist care. The negotiating parties stated that it had not been their intention to affect training for nurses, and they called on Agema to find an alternative cut in the healthcare budget. Agema advised against a

motion In physics, motion is when an object changes its position with respect to a reference point in a given time. Motion is mathematically described in terms of displacement, distance, velocity, acceleration, speed, and frame of reference to an o ...

to ban

private equity Private equity (PE) is stock in a private company that does not offer stock to the general public; instead it is offered to specialized investment funds and limited partnerships that take an active role in the management and structuring of the co ...

firms from investing in the healthcare sector that received support from the PVV. She had been critical of the practice as a member of parliament, but she now said that legal hurdles existed and that such financing can be beneficial. The House of Representatives urged Agema to prevent the closure of the

emergency department An emergency department (ED), also known as an accident and emergency department (A&E), emergency room (ER), emergency ward (EW) or casualty department, is a medical treatment facility specializing in emergency medicine, the Acute (medicine), ...

and

intensive care unit An intensive care unit (ICU), also known as an intensive therapy unit or intensive treatment unit (ITU) or critical care unit (CCU), is a special department of a hospital or health care facility that provides intensive care medicine. An inten ...

Heerlen Heerlen (; ) is a city and a Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the southeast of the Netherlands. It is the third largest settlement proper in the province of Limburg (Netherlands), Limburg. Measured as municipality, it is the f ...

's , but she was unsuccessful despite the coalition agreement's commitment to retaining local hospitals.

Personal life

In December 2012, Agema announced that she has been diagnosed with

multiple sclerosis Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease resulting in damage to myelinthe insulating covers of nerve cellsin the brain and spinal cord. As a demyelinating disease, MS disrupts the nervous system's ability to Action potential, transmit ...

. Agema went on maternity leave on 13 January 2015 and was replaced by Karen Gerbrands. On 17 February 2015, she gave birth to a daughter with

Léon de Jong Léon Willem Evert de Jong (born 31 August 1982) is a Dutch politician and singer and a former musician and salesman. As a member of the Party for Freedom (Partij voor de Vrijheid), he sits in the House of Representatives, firstly from 17 June 2 ...

Electoral history

References

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Agema, Fleur 1976 births Living people 20th-century Dutch architects 21st-century Dutch architects 21st-century Dutch women politicians Dutch women architects Dutch MPs 2023– Members of the Provincial Council of North Holland Party for Freedom politicians People from Purmerend People with multiple sclerosis Pim Fortuyn List politicians Utrecht School of the Arts alumni 20th-century Dutch women 20th-century Dutch people Deputy prime ministers of the Netherlands Ministers of sport of the Netherlands Ministers of health of the Netherlands Women government ministers of the Netherlands Dutch MPs 2006–2010 Dutch MPs 2010–2012 Dutch MPs 2012–2017 Dutch MPs 2017–2021 Dutch MPs 2021–2023 Party for Freedom MPs