Johan Houwers (born 4 October 1957 in

Winterswijk Winterswijk (; also known as ''Winterswiek'' or ''Wenters'') is a Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality and a town in the eastern Netherlands. It has a population of and is situated in the Achterhoek, which lies in the easternmost part ...

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

) is a Dutch politician and

real estate broker Real estate agents and real estate brokers are people who represent sellers or buyers of real estate or real property. While a broker may work independently, an agent usually works under a licensed broker to represent clients. Brokers and age ...

. As a member of the

People's Party for Freedom and Democracy The People's Party for Freedom and Democracy ( , VVD) is a Conservative liberalism, conservative-liberal List of political parties in the Netherlands, political party in the Netherlands. The VVD, whose forerunner was the Freedom Party (Netherl ...

(Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie) he was an MP from 26 October 2010 to 20 September 2012. He focused on matters of

greenhouse A greenhouse is a structure that is designed to regulate the temperature and humidity of the environment inside. There are different types of greenhouses, but they all have large areas covered with transparent materials that let sunlight pass an ...

fishery Fishery can mean either the enterprise of raising or harvesting fish and other aquatic life or, more commonly, the site where such enterprise takes place ( a.k.a., fishing grounds). Commercial fisheries include wild fisheries and fish far ...

hunting Hunting is the Human activity, human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, and killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to obtain the animal's body for meat and useful animal products (fur/hide (sk ...

animal welfare Animal welfare is the quality of life and overall well-being of animals. Formal standards of animal welfare vary between contexts, but are debated mostly by animal welfare groups, legislators, and academics. Animal welfare science uses measures ...

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

water Water is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula . It is a transparent, tasteless, odorless, and Color of water, nearly colorless chemical substance. It is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known liv ...

. From 8 November 2012, he once again was an MP, resigning on 22 July 2013, following to a mortgage fraud investigation. He served as an independent MP between 25 March 2015 and 23 March 2017. Houwers was a member of the

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, borough cou ...

of Winterswijk from 1990 to 2002, and again between 11 March 2010 and 5 July 2012. From 1990 to 1994, and again since 2010, he was VVD fraction leader. From 1994 to 2001, he was also an

alderman An alderman is a member of a Municipal government, municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law with similar officials existing in the Netherlands (wethouder) and Belgium (schepen). The term may be titular, denotin ...

and from 1999 to 2010, a member of the

States of Gelderland The States of Gelderland (, ) are the States-Provincial for the Netherlands, Dutch Provinces of the Netherlands, province of Gelderland. It forms the legislative body of the province. Its 55 seats are distributed every four years in Provincial e ...

. Houwers studied

social geography Social geography is the branch of human geography that is interested in the relationships between society and space, and is most closely related to social theory in general and sociology in particular, dealing with the relation of social phenome ...

( BA) as well as

urban planning Urban planning (also called city planning in some contexts) is the process of developing and designing land use and the built environment, including air, water, and the infrastructure passing into and out of urban areas, such as transportatio ...

( MA) at

Radboud University Nijmegen Radboud University (abbreviated as RU, , formerly ) is a public university, public research university located in Nijmegen, Netherlands. RU has seven faculties and more than 24,000 students. Established in 1923, Radboud University has consistentl ...

. After the possible return of the

wolf The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the grey wolf or gray wolf, is a Canis, canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of Canis lupus, subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, includin ...

to the Netherlands, Houwers mentioned that if the population numbers rose, wolves should be shot so they would not present a harm to society. Houwers clashed with the coalition Labour Party politician Lutz Jacobi on the topic.

Mortgage fraud investigation

On 22 July 2013, Houwers resigned his seat after it was revealed that the police started an investigation into him concerning possible mortgage fraud.

Aegon Aegon Ltd. (stylized as AEGON) is a Dutch public company for life insurance, pensions and asset management. It is headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands and has 26,000 employees as of July 21, 2020. Aegon is listed on the Euronext Amsterdam a ...

and

Rabobank Rabobank (; full name: ''Coöperatieve Rabobank U.A.'') is a Dutch multinational banking and financial services company headquartered in Utrecht, Netherlands. The group comprises 89 local Dutch Rabobanks (2019), a central organisation (Raboban ...

, the mortgage providers, filed charges against him because he did not represent his income correctly. On 31 July, justice authorities seized Houwers' property in Winterswijk for 1 million euro. Houwers said he would wait for the outcome of the investigation before responding to the press. On 16 March 2015, he was found guilty of forgery and fraud and had to pay a fine of €4000. According to the fraction leader of the VVD in Parliament,

Halbe Zijlstra Halbe Zijlstra (; born 21 January 1969) is a retired Dutch politician who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 26 October 2017 to 13 February 2018 in the Third Rutte cabinet. He is a member of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy ...

, he could not return as an MP for the VVD.

References

*
Parlement.com biography

External links

*
Johan Houwers
personal website *
House of Representatives biography
*
People's Party for Freedom and Democracy website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Houwers, Johan 1957 births Living people Aldermen in Gelderland Dutch businesspeople Dutch geographers Dutch urban planners Dutch MPs 2012–2017 Members of the Provincial Council of Gelderland Independent politicians in the Netherlands People from Winterswijk People's Party for Freedom and Democracy politicians Radboud University Nijmegen alumni Dutch real estate brokers Social geographers Dutch MPs 2010–2012