Peter Johannes "Peter" Valstar (born 27 March 1985) is a Dutch politician of the conservative liberal

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 ...

(VVD). He worked as a press officer for the VVD, as the political assistant of Minister

Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert Jeanine Antoinette Hennis-Plasschaert (born 7 April 1973) is a Dutch politician and diplomat who has been serving as United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon since May 2024. She is a member of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy ( ...

and Prime Minister

Mark Rutte Mark Rutte (; born 14 February 1967) is a Dutch politician who has served as the 14th Secretary General of NATO, secretary general of NATO since October 2024. He previously served as Prime Minister of the Netherlands, prime minister of the Neth ...

, and as a spokesperson at the

Ministry of Defence A ministry of defence or defense (see American and British English spelling differences#-ce.2C -se, spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and Mi ...

before being elected to 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 ...

in March 2021. He lost his bid for re-election in November 2023.

Early life and education

Valstar was born in the

South Holland South Holland ( ) is a province of the Netherlands with a population of over 3.8 million as of January 2023 and a population density of about , making it the country's most populous province and one of the world's most densely populated areas. ...

town of

's-Gravenzande s-Gravenzande is a town in the province of South Holland, in the Netherlands. It is a part of the municipality of Westland, and lies about southwest of The Hague. Until 2004 it was a separate municipality and covered an area of 20.77 km2 (of ...

and grew up in nearby

Ter Heijde Ter Heijde is a village in the Dutch province of South Holland. It is a part of the municipality of Westland, and lies about 6 km southwest of The Hague. The area "Ter Heijde", which also includes the surrounding countryside, has a populat ...

with his sister. He followed secondary education at havo level at the Zandevelt and Gasthuislaan locations of the Interconfessionele Scholengemeenschap Westland in 's-Gravenzande. He subsequently started studying Management, Economics, and Law but quit after two months. Valstar later studied communication studies at the

Inholland University of Applied Sciences Inholland University of Applied Sciences (; ; ) is a large university of applied sciences located in eight main cities of the Randstad, the central-western region of the Netherlands and the country's economic, political and cultural hub. With ove ...

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

between 2005 and 2009 and interned at early-evening talk show .

Career

Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert and Peter Valstar

Valstar started his career in 2009 as a communications advisor for the VVD, where he worked on its

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 ...

strategy, and he became a press officer of its

parliamentary group A parliamentary group, parliamentary caucus or political group is a group consisting of members of different political party, political parties or independent politicians with similar ideologies. Some parliamentary systems allow smaller politic ...

in the

in 2011. He stayed in that position until he took a job as political advisor of Defence Minister

in 2016. Another year later, Valstar became a senior spokesperson at the

, serving under her successor

Ank Bijleveld Anna Theodora Bernardina "Ank" Bijleveld-Schouten (born 17 March 1962) is a Dutch politician of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA). She served as Minister of Defence in the third cabinet of Prime Minister Mark Rutte from 26 October 2017 to 17 ...

and Defence State Secretary

Barbara Visser Barbara Visser (born 16 August 1977) is a Dutch-Croatian politician of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD). From 31 August 2021 to 10 January 2022, she served as Minister of Infrastructure and Water Management of the Netherlands ...

. While still in that position, he twice served as temporary political advisor of Prime Minister

at the

Ministry of General Affairs The Ministry of General Affairs (; AZ) is the Dutch Ministry responsible for government policy, planning, information, and the Dutch royal house. The Ministry was created in 1937 and dissolved in 1945, but in 1947 it was reinstated by Prime Min ...

because of maternity leaves, the first time from August 2018 to January 2019 and the second time from March to August 2020. He participated in the 2018 municipal elections as the VVD's fourth candidate in Westland, but his party came one seat short for Valstar to be 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 ...

. He was offered a seat in the council a month later after someone had stepped down to become 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 ...

, but Valstar declined it. He did assist the VVD's group in the council next to his job in the period 2019–21. From that position, he proposed to name more streets in the municipality after local soldiers and

resistance fighters During World War II, resistance movements operated in German-occupied Europe by a variety of means, ranging from non-cooperation to propaganda, hiding crashed pilots and even to outright warfare and the recapturing of towns. In many countries, r ...

in World War II. Valstar ran for the

in the 2021 general election, being placed 21st on the VVD's

party list An electoral list is a grouping of candidates for election, usually found in proportional or mixed electoral systems, but also in some plurality electoral systems. An electoral list can be registered by a political party (a party list) or can c ...

. He was elected and received 4,102

preference votes Preferential voting or preference voting (PV) may refer to different election systems or groups of election systems: * Any electoral system that allows a voter to indicate multiple preferences where preferences marked are weighted or used as cont ...

. He was sworn into office on 31 March 2021 and left his job at the defence ministry. Valstar is on the contact group Belgium and on the Committees for Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality; for Defence (vice chair); for Digital Affairs (chair); for Foreign Affairs; and for Justice and Security. He became his party's spokesperson for fishery, nature,

horticulture Horticulture (from ) is the art and science of growing fruits, vegetables, flowers, trees, shrubs and ornamental plants. Horticulture is commonly associated with the more professional and technical aspects of plant cultivation on a smaller and mo ...

(a major industry in Westland), the countryside, animal welfare, war victims, and resistance fighters. However, later in 2021, his portfolio changed to nature, horticulture, and immigration (excluding migrant workers) before changing to defense, nature, and horticulture in early 2022. Valstar co-filed

motions 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 observ ...

to arm

MQ-9 Reaper The General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper (sometimes called Predator B) is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV, one component of an unmanned aircraft system (UAS)) capable of remotely controlled or autonomous flight operations, developed by General Atomi ...

unmanned aerial vehicle An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or unmanned aircraft system (UAS), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft with no human pilot, crew, or passengers onboard, but rather is controlled remotely or is autonomous.De Gruyter Handbook of Dron ...

s, to allow tastings of

cultured meat Cultured meat, also known as cultivated meat among other names, is a form of cellular agriculture wherein meat is produced by culturing animal cells ''in vitro''; thus growing animal flesh, molecularly identical to that of conventional meat, ou ...

, and to call on the government to aid the greenhouse horticulture sector in cooperation with banks in a time of high natural gas prices. All three were carried by the House. In September 2022 – during the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

– he joined

Chris Stoffer Christiaan "Chris" Stoffer (born 19 September 1974) is a Dutch politician who has served as Leader of the Reformed Political Party (''Staatkundig Gereformeerde Partij'', SGP) since 25 August 2023. Career Prior to his service in the House of Re ...

( SGP) in the drafting of a bill to make sure defense spending would be at least 2% of Dutch

GDP Gross domestic product (GDP) is a monetary measure of the total market value of all the final goods and services produced and rendered in a specific time period by a country or countries. GDP is often used to measure the economic performance o ...

in accordance to a

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

norm.

Personal life

Valstar has a wife named Larissa and two children, and he is a resident of his birthplace of

. He has also lived in

Monster A monster is a type of imaginary or fictional creature found in literature, folklore, mythology, fiction and religion. They are very often depicted as dangerous and aggressive, with a strange or grotesque appearance that causes Anxiety, terror ...

Wateringen Wateringen is a village in the Dutch province of South Holland. It is a part of the municipality of Westland, and lies about 5 km southwest of The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherland ...

, and

Naaldwijk Naaldwijk () is a town in the Dutch province of South Holland. It is a part of the municipality of Westland, and lies about 10 km (6 miles) southwest of The Hague. Naaldwijk lies in the heart of Westland. The largest economic sector is g ...

, all located in the region of Westland. Valstar's hobbies include

genealogy Genealogy () is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their lineages. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kin ...

, and he has digitized his family tree together with a family member.

Electoral history

References

External links

Campaign website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Valstar, Peter 1985 births Living people People's Party for Freedom and Democracy politicians Political staffers 21st-century Dutch civil servants People from 's-Gravenzande Dutch MPs 2021–2023