Mirjam Hannah Bikker (born 8 September 1982) is a Dutch politician who has served as the leader of the Christian Union since January 2023. She is also 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 ...

since

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

. She was previously elected to 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 ...

Utrecht Utrecht ( ; ; ) is the List of cities in the Netherlands by province, fourth-largest city of the Netherlands, as well as the capital and the most populous city of the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of Utrecht (province), Utrecht. The ...

2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

and

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

Biography

Bikker grew up in Moordrecht and

Nunspeet Nunspeet () is a municipality and town in the central Netherlands. It has been an agricultural site since prehistoric times. The municipality contains a number of villages, namely Hulshorst, Elspeet, and Vierhouten. Nunspeet has a vivid historica ...

; she attended her secondary education in Elburg. She studied law at

Utrecht University Utrecht University (UU; , formerly ''Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht'') is a public university, public research university in Utrecht, Netherlands. Established , it is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands. In 2023, it had an enrollment of ...

and specialised in

constitutional A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed. When these princ ...

and

administrative law Administrative law is a division of law governing the activities of government agency, executive branch agencies of government. Administrative law includes executive branch rulemaking (executive branch rules are generally referred to as "regul ...

. As a student she was also chairwoman of Sola Scriptura, a local student society belonging to the

Reformed Reform is beneficial change. Reform, reformed or reforming may also refer to: Media * ''Reform'' (album), a 2011 album by Jane Zhang * Reform (band), a Swedish jazz fusion group * ''Reform'' (magazine), a Christian magazine Places * Reform, Al ...

CSFR. From 2006 to 2013, she was a member of the municipal council of the city of

, as well as also group chairwoman. In 2007, she received national attention by protesting against a woman in a golden bikini on a big poster in the centre of Utrecht. From 2008 to 2010 and again from 2013 to 2015, she was a policy assistant to the Christian Union group in the

. In 2015, she joined the

. In 2019, she became group chairwoman, succeeding

Roel Kuiper Roelof (Roel) Kuiper (born 5 April 1962 in Mariënberg) is a Dutch historian, philosopher, ideologue, politician and university professor. He was from 2007 to 2019 a member of the Dutch Senate of the Netherlands, Senate, and is professor of Refo ...

House of Representatives

In 2021, she was elected to the

. She was mentioned as a potential minister in the formation phase of the

Fourth Rutte cabinet The fourth Rutte cabinet was the cabinet of the Netherlands from 10 January 2022 until 2 July 2024. The cabinet was a continuation of the third Rutte cabinet and was formed by the conservative liberal People's Party for Freedom and Democracy ( ...

. On 17 January 2023 Bikker became the leader of the Christian Union, becoming the first female leader of the party. She was re-elected to the House in November 2023. Next to her role as

parliamentary leader A parliamentary leader is a political title or a descriptive term used in various countries to designate the person leading a parliamentary group or caucus in a legislature, legislative body, whether it be a national or sub-national legislature. ...

, Bikker served as her party's spokesperson for health, welfare, sport, justice, security, the interior,

Dutch royal family The monarchy of the Netherlands is governed by the country's charter and constitution, roughly a third of which explains the mechanics of succession, accession, and abdication; the roles and duties of the monarch; the formalities of communica ...

, and gas extraction in Groningen. 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 ...

by Bikker was passed in early 2024 compelling Minister Franc Weerwind to make a spending cap on

online gambling Online gambling (also known as iGaming or iGambling) is any kind of gambling conducted on the internet. This includes virtual poker, casinos, and sports betting. The first online gambling venue opened to the general public was ticketing for th ...

more stringent, after the practice was legalized in 2021. Along with Michiel van Nispen ( SP), she announced a bill with several measures to tackle online gambling issues, including a ban on advertisements and credit card payments and increased contributions from operators toward addiction prevention. Her party favored prohibiting online gambling, but such a proposal was unlikely to pass the House. Bikker also spoke out against

antisemitism Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...

during the

Gaza war The Gaza war is an armed conflict in the Gaza Strip and southern Israel fought since 7 October 2023. A part of the unresolved Israeli–Palestinian conflict, Israeli–Palestinian and Gaza–Israel conflict, Gaza–Israel conflicts dating ...

. At Bikker's initiative, a statement was signed by most political parties speaking out against it, and a session about the topic was held at the prime minister's official residence amongst industry leaders. Along with

Frans Timmermans Franciscus Cornelis Gerardus Maria Timmermans (; born 6 May 1961) is a Dutch politician who served as Executive Vice President of the European Commission for the European Green Deal and European Commissioner for Climate Action in the von der ...

GroenLinks–PvdA GroenLinks–PvdA (), alternatively PvdA–GroenLinks, or GreenLeft–Labour in English, is an alliance between GroenLinks (GL) and the Labour Party (Netherlands), Labour Party (PvdA) in the Netherlands. The Electoral alliance, political allian ...

, she carried forward a bill to impose harsher penalties in cases of

hate crime Hate crime (also known as bias crime) in criminal law involves a standard offence (such as an assault, murder) with an added element of bias against a victim (individual or group of individuals) because of their physical appearance or perceived ...

s, including acts of violence or insults motivated by discrimination. It was passed by an overwhelming majority of the House in December 2024. When the right-wing Schoof cabinet presented its 2025 budget that included €2 billion in education cuts, Bikker joined the self-named "unholy alliance" with centrist and conservative opposition parties. To gain support in the

, the governing coalition agreed in December 2024 to reverse €750 million of the cuts. Bikker did not embrace the revised budget, declaring that they had made "a bad budget less bad".

Political positions

Bikker is in favor of stricter regulations on

social media Social media are interactive technologies that facilitate the Content creation, creation, information exchange, sharing and news aggregator, aggregation of Content (media), content (such as ideas, interests, and other forms of expression) amongs ...

, and she wants to ban online gambling in order to improve mental health among young people. She supports the

civilian service Alternative civilian service, also called alternative services, civilian service, non-military service, and substitute service, is a form of national service performed in lieu of military conscription for various reasons, such as conscientious o ...

that was introduced in 2020.

Personal life

Mirjam Bikker is married, has three children and lives in Gouda. She is a member of the

Protestant Church in the Netherlands The Protestant Church in the Netherlands (, abbreviated PKN) is the largest Protestantism, Protestant Christian denomination, denomination in the Netherlands, consisting of historical Calvinism, Calvinist and Lutheranism, Lutheran churches. It w ...

(PKN).

Electoral history

References

External links

*
Parlement.com biography
*
Senate biography
* (in Dutch
House of Representatives biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bikker, Mirjam 1982 births Living people 21st-century Dutch women politicians Christian Union (Netherlands) politicians Dutch women jurists Dutch MPs 2021–2023 Dutch MPs 2023– Members of the Senate (Netherlands) Municipal councillors of Utrecht (city) People from Gouda, South Holland Protestant Church Christians from the Netherlands Utrecht University alumni 20th-century Dutch women 20th-century Dutch people