Rob van Gijzel (born 29 June 1954 in

Eindhoven Eindhoven ( ; ) is a city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality of the Netherlands, located in the southern Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Brabant, of which it is the largest municipality, and is also locat ...

) 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 ...

. He is a former MP and was

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...

of Eindhoven between 8 April 2008 and 13 September 2016. When Van Gijzel was a

student A student is a person enrolled in a school or other educational institution, or more generally, a person who takes a special interest in a subject. In the United Kingdom and most The Commonwealth, commonwealth countries, a "student" attends ...

, he became an active member of the Jonge Socialisten. He served as that organization's chairman in the period 1979-1982. He was a candidate for parliament for the PvdA and was finally elected to parliament for that party in 1989, where he served as

caucus A caucus is a group or meeting of supporters or members of a specific political party or movement. The exact definition varies between different countries and political cultures. The term originated in the United States, where it can refer to ...

spokesman on the subject of Verkeer & Waterstaat (

traffic Traffic is the movement of vehicles and pedestrians along land routes. Traffic laws govern and regulate traffic, while rules of the road include traffic laws and informal rules that may have developed over time to facilitate the orderly an ...

transport Transport (in British English) or transportation (in American English) is the intentional Motion, movement of humans, animals, and cargo, goods from one location to another. Mode of transport, Modes of transport include aviation, air, land tr ...

public works Public works are a broad category of infrastructure projects, financed and procured by a government body for recreational, employment, and health and safety uses in the greater community. They include public buildings ( municipal buildings, ...

and

water management Water resources are natural resources of water that are potentially useful for humans, for example as a source of drinking water supply or irrigation water. These resources can be either freshwater from natural sources, or water produced artificia ...

). Following the Bijlmer disaster he picked up the nickname ''Bijlmerboy'', due to his vociferous insistence on a full parliamentary inquiry into the aftereffects of the crash. After that inquiry, Van Gijzel was PvdA spokesperson in the debate on the findings of the parliamentary committee. In that function he joined

Rob Oudkerk Robert Herman (Rob) Oudkerk (born 20 March 1955 in Amsterdam) is a Dutch politician and general practitioner. Oudkerk was born in Amsterdam. He was the son of a Judaism, Jewish butcher and a nurse. His grandfather was David Cohen (historian), Davi ...

(who was on the committee) in voting for a

motion of no confidence A motion or vote of no confidence (or the inverse, a motion or vote of confidence) is a motion and corresponding vote thereon in a deliberative assembly (usually a legislative body) as to whether an officer (typically an executive) is deemed fi ...

health minister A health minister is the member of a country's government typically responsible for protecting and promoting public health and providing welfare spending and other social security services. Some governments have separate ministers for mental heal ...

Els Borst. He was also the only PvdA representative to vote against the motion of

Ad Melkert Adrianus Petrus Wilhelmus "Ad" Melkert (; born 12 February 1956) is a Dutch politician and diplomat of the Labour Party (Netherlands), Labour Party (PvdA) who has served as a Council of State (Netherlands), Member of the Council of State since 2 ...

, calling on the government to ''learn the lessons of the failings in the handling of the Bijlmer disaster''. On 9 November 2001 Rob van Gijzel was a guest on the television program Zembla, in an episode regarding the building industry fraud. The program revealed that a

cartel A cartel is a group of independent market participants who collaborate with each other as well as agreeing not to compete with each other in order to improve their profits and dominate the market. A cartel is an organization formed by producers ...

of the largest

building contractor A contractor (North American English) or builder (British English), is responsible for the day-to-day oversight of a construction site, management of vendors and trades, and the communication of information to all involved parties throughout the c ...

s in The Netherlands had been defrauding the

ministry of public works This list indicates government departments in various countries dedicated to public works or infrastructure. See also * Public works * Ministry or Board of Public Works, the imperial Chinese ministry overseeing public projects from the Tang ...

, the

Nederlandse Spoorwegen (, , NS ) is the principal passenger railway operator in the Netherlands. It is a Dutch state-owned company founded in 1938. The rail infrastructure is maintained by network manager ProRail, which was split off from NS in 2003. Freight operato ...

and

Schiphol Airport Amsterdam Airport Schiphol , known informally as Schiphol Airport (, ), is the main international airport of the Netherlands, and is one of the major hubs for the SkyTeam airline alliance. It is located southwest of Amsterdam, in the municip ...

for years; the total damage was between 500 million and one billion

guilders Guilder is the English translation of the Dutch and German ''gulden'', originally shortened from Middle High German ''guldin pfenninc'' (" gold penny"). This was the term that became current in the southern and western parts of the Holy Rom ...

. Van Gijzel referred to this in the program as "the largest fraud in the history of The Netherlands". Van Gijzel also commented on the building fraud in the television program NOVA on the same day. The leader of the PvdA in parliament, Ad Melkert, was not happy about the way Van Gijzel openly commented on the affair and immediately replaced Van Gijzel as spokesman for the building fraud and ordered Van Gijzel to run all future commentary on the affair by him (Melkert) first. Van Gijzel felt this made him a "muzzled parliamentarian" (Dutch: ''een parlementariër met een slot op de mond''), making it impossible for him to execute his office as an elected representative. On 27 November he left parliament, giving as reason that he was given too little leeway to function properly. Van Gijzel also stated that Melkert feared that he (Van Gijzel) was too hungry for political consequences in the building fraud affair and that Van Gijzel felt that the PvdA caucus was protecting the responsible ministers too much. In the fraud affair, Van Gijzel had often and openly opposed PvdA Minister Tineke Netelenbos of public works and Benk Korthals of justice.Rob van Gijzel stapt op
, NOVA, November 27, 2001 Despite Van Gijzel resigning, a parliamentary inquiry into the affair was started in August 2002. After having been considered for 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 ...

post, Van Gijzel was a candidate for mayor of Eindhoven in 2003. He lost out to VVD candidate Alexander Sakkers though. After losing the mayoral race, he started a political advisory agency called Politea, together with his wife Irene van Rijsewijk. After the

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he became deputy chairman of the National Swimming Institute Eindhoven. In December 2007 Van Gijzel once again ran for mayor of Eindhoven. The citizens of Eindhoven were allowed to vote in an advisory

referendum A referendum, plebiscite, or ballot measure is a Direct democracy, direct vote by the Constituency, electorate (rather than their Representative democracy, representatives) on a proposal, law, or political issue. A referendum may be either bin ...

on 23 January 2008, with a choice between Van Gijzel and fellow PvdA party member Leen Verbeek. Van Gijzel received 68.5% of the vote, although the referendum was invalid due to a turnout of less than 30%. This left the advisory decision with 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 ...

, which stuck with the outcome of the referendum and recommended Van Gijzel (with 25 out of 43 vote). The

Minister of Internal Affairs An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergency ...

followed the recommendation and Van Gijzel was installed as mayor on 7 April, succeeding interim mayor

Gerrit Braks Gerardus Johannes Maria "Gerrit" Braks (23 May 1933 – 12 July 2017) was a Dutch politician of the defunct Catholic People's Party (KVP) and later the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) party and agronomist. Braks applied at the Wageningen Ag ...

. On 21 November 2008 a conference was held in

Almere Almere () is a Planned community, planned List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of Flevoland, Netherlands across the IJmeer fro ...

on inner-city problems with marihuana. Speaking for 33 mayors, Van Gijzel announced that Eindhoven was going to start a city nursery to supply the soft drug to city

coffee shops A coffeehouse, coffee shop, or café (), is an establishment that serves various types of coffee, espresso, latte, americano and cappuccino, among other hot beverages. Many coffeehouses in West Asia offer ''shisha'' (actually called ''nargile ...

. In addition to being a member of several local and regional boards, Van Gijzel is chairman of the ICF Foundation (New York), since 2013.

References

*
Parlement.com biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gijzel, Rob Van 1954 births Living people 20th-century Dutch civil servants 20th-century Dutch politicians 21st-century Dutch politicians Intelligent Community Forum Labour Party (Netherlands) politicians Mayors of Eindhoven Members of the House of Representatives (Netherlands) People from Eindhoven