Pieter Rink (13 August 1851 – 6 August 1941) was 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 ...

. Pieter Rink was born in

Tiel Tiel () is a Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality and a town in the middle of the Netherlands. The town is enclosed by the Waal (river), Waal river and the Linge river to the South and the North, and the Amsterdam-Rhine Canal to the Eas ...

, where he was a successful

lawyer A lawyer is a person who is qualified to offer advice about the law, draft legal documents, or represent individuals in legal matters. The exact nature of a lawyer's work varies depending on the legal jurisdiction and the legal system, as w ...

. He was a member of the Liberal Union and served in 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 his city of birth (1883–1905) and was a member of the

Provincial Council of Gelderland The States of Gelderland (, ) are the States-Provincial for the Dutch province of Gelderland. It forms the legislative body of the province. Its 55 seats are distributed every four years in provincial elections. From 2005 till early 2019, it w ...

(1903–1905). In 1891 he was elected in 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 ...

and remained a member until 1922 (except in the period 1905-1908 when he was Minister of the Interior). From July 1918 until April 1921 he was the chairman of the

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 ...

of the Liberal Union and from April 1921 till July 1922 he served as the first president of the Freedom League parliamentary party. In 1923 he was elected to the

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 ...

, remaining a member until 1933. In the years prior to the introduction of

universal suffrage Universal suffrage or universal franchise ensures the right to vote for as many people bound by a government's laws as possible, as supported by the " one person, one vote" principle. For many, the term universal suffrage assumes the exclusion ...

in 1917, he was an ardent advocate of suffrage extension and was considered a "'' Takkiaan''". This fact was underlined in the party brochure he co-authored, ''Het kiesrechtvraagstuk'' ("The Suffrage Question") which was published in 1903 and called for the introduction of

female suffrage Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections. Several instances occurred in recent centuries where women were selectively given, then stripped of, the right to vote. In Sweden, conditional women's suffrage was in effect during ...

and a reform of the electoral system. Pieter Rinck joined the De Meester cabinet in 1905 as Minister of the Interior. This cabinet was very weak and incapable of introducing important reforms and it resigned in December 1907 (an earlier resignation in December 1906 was refused by

Queen Wilhelmina Wilhelmina (; Wilhelmina Helena Pauline Maria; 31 August 1880 – 28 November 1962) was Queen of the Netherlands from 1890 until her abdication in 1948. She reigned for nearly 58 years, making her the longest-reigning monarch in Dutch history, as ...

). After the merger of the Liberal Union and the League of Free Liberals in 1921, he joined the new conservative liberal party Freedom League. Pieter Rink, who belonged to the

Dutch Reformed Church The Dutch Reformed Church (, , abbreviated NHK ) was the largest Christian denomination in the Netherlands from the onset of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century until 1930. It was the traditional denomination of the Dutch royal famil ...

, died on 6 August 1941 in

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 ...

Party functions

*Member of the Liberal Union till 16 April 1921 *Member of the Freedom League from 16 April 1921 *Member of the Party Executive of the Liberal Union between 1891 and 1915 *Deputy Chairman of the Liberal Union from 1915 till 1920 *Provisional Chairman of the Liberal Union from January 1917 till April 1921 *Member of the Party Executive of the Liberale State Party "The Freedom League" from 16 April 1921 till 1924 *Deputy Chairman of the Liberal State Party "The Freedom League" from 1925 till April 1932 *Honorary Chairman of the Liberal State Party "The Freedom League"

Literature

*''Nederlands Patriciaat'' 1911, 1958

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rink, Pieter 1851 births 1941 deaths People from Tiel Liberal Union (Netherlands) politicians Liberal State Party politicians Ministers of the interior of the Netherlands Members of the Senate (Netherlands) Members of the House of Representatives (Netherlands) Members of the Provincial Council of Gelderland Municipal councillors in Gelderland 19th-century Dutch lawyers Utrecht University alumni Commanders of the Order of the Netherlands Lion