Maria Bernadina (Marijke) Vos (born 4 May 1957 in

Leidschendam Leidschendam () is a town and former municipality in the province of South Holland of the Netherlands. Along with Voorburg and Stompwijk, it is part of the municipality Leidschendam-Voorburg. History The town's name has been in use for centurie ...

) is a Dutch

politician A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...

Career

Pre-political career

Vos's father was a judge in

's-Hertogenbosch s-Hertogenbosch (), colloquially known as Den Bosch (), is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Netherlands with a population of 160,783. It is the capital of ...

. Her grandfather, A.H.J. Engels was member of parliament for the

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

RKSP. After finishing gymnasium-b in

in 1975, Vos went on to study

biology Biology is the scientific study of life and living organisms. It is a broad natural science that encompasses a wide range of fields and unifying principles that explain the structure, function, growth, History of life, origin, evolution, and ...

at the University of Wageningen, graduating in 1983. During her study she was active in the students movement, the

peace movement A peace movement is a social movement which seeks to achieve ideals such as the ending of a particular war (or wars) or minimizing inter-human violence in a particular place or situation. They are often linked to the goal of achieving world pe ...

and the campaign against

nuclear energy Nuclear energy may refer to: *Nuclear power, the use of sustained nuclear fission or nuclear fusion to generate heat and electricity *Nuclear binding energy, the energy needed to fuse or split a nucleus of an atom *Nuclear potential energy, the pot ...

. In 1984 she worked as teacher and campaigner for an

environmental organisation An environmental organization is an organization coming out of the conservation or environmental movements that seeks to protect, analyse or monitor the environment against misuse or degradation from human forces. In this sense the environme ...

, 'Milieudefensie' ('Defense of the Environment'). In 1990 she began to teach

ecology Ecology () is the natural science of the relationships among living organisms and their Natural environment, environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community (ecology), community, ecosystem, and biosphere lev ...

at the Centre of Ecology of the

University of Leiden Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; ) is a public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. Established in 1575 by William, Prince of Orange as a Protestant institution, it holds the distinction of being the oldest university in the Neth ...

until 1992. In 1989 she became a member of the

GreenLeft (, ; GL) is a green political party in the Netherlands. It was formed on 1 March 1989 from the merger of four left-wing parties: the Communist Party of the Netherlands, the Pacifist Socialist Party, the Political Party of Radicals and the ...

and almost immediately entered its temporary board, that would oversee the merger of the four parties that would form the GreenLeft. She was elected party chairperson in 1990. In 1992 this office became a paid function and she left the university.

Political career

In 1994 she stood for the GreenLeft in 1994 general elections. She was elected into 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 ...

. Between 1995 and 1996 Vos was chairperson of the parliamentary commission on climate change. In 1997 she was elected animal rights protector of the year. Since 1998 Vos has been deputy party leader. In 2003 she was interim party leader, when

Femke Halsema Femke Halsema (; born 25 April 1966) is a Dutch politician and filmmaker serving as Mayor of Amsterdam since 2018. She is the first woman to hold the position on a non-interim basis. She previously was a member of the House of Representatives ...

gave birth to twins. Between 2001 and 2003 she was chairperson of the parliamentary commission on fraud in the building sector. In 2003 she became a member of the board of advice of the

refugee A refugee, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), is a person "forced to flee their own country and seek safety in another country. They are unable to return to their own country because of feared persecution as ...

-assistance organisation 'Steunpunt Vluchteling' ('Supportpillar for Refugees'). In 2004 she announced that she would not enter in the next general election, instead she would become alderwoman in Amsterdam, if the GreenLeft enter local government there. As member of

parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

, Vos has shown particular interest in

the environment The natural environment or natural world encompasses all life, biotic and abiotic component, abiotic things occurring nature, naturally, meaning in this case not artificiality, artificial. The term is most often applied to Earth or some parts ...

animal rights Animal rights is the philosophy according to which many or all Animal consciousness, sentient animals have Moral patienthood, moral worth independent of their Utilitarianism, utility to humans, and that their most basic interests—such as ...

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

civil liberties Civil liberties are guarantees and freedoms that governments commit not to abridge, either by constitution, legislation, or judicial interpretation, without due process. Though the scope of the term differs between countries, civil liberties of ...

. Since 2004 Vos is co-owner of vineyard in southern

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, the vineyard produces organic wine, sunflowers and grain.

Local Politics

While still in parliament, Vos played an important role in the election campaign and government formation in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

. In the March 2006 local elections Marijke Vos had a

lijstduwer (; 'list pusher') is a Dutch term for the last candidate on a party list. In Suriname, the Netherlands and Belgium, this position is often taken by well-known non-politicians such as artists, celebrities and sportspeople. They are official c ...

's position on the GreenLeft list for the

city 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 counc ...

, she was elected by a large number of preference votes. In April 2006 she was appointed alderwoman in Amsterdam in a PvdA/GreenLeft coalition. On 23 May 2006 she left parliament to devote herself to her alderman's work, she was succeeded by former GreenLeft vice-chair, Nevin Özütok.

References

*
Parlement.com biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vos, Marijke 1957 births Living people Aldermen of Amsterdam Dutch MPs 1994–1998 Dutch MPs 1998–2002 Dutch MPs 2002–2003 Dutch MPs 2003–2006 Dutch women in politics GroenLinks politicians Members of the Senate (Netherlands) Chairmen of GroenLinks People from Leidschendam Wageningen University and Research alumni