Hans Janmaat

Johannes Gerardus Hendrikus "Hans" Janmaat (; 3 November 1934 – 9 June 2002) was a Dutch businessman and politician of the far-right Centre Party (CP) who later founded the Centre Democrats (CD).

Although he was widely known, he was never a major force in the Dutch political landscape, partly because of a cordon sanitaire imposed by Prime Minister Ruud Lubbers's third cabinet.

Biography Early life Johannes Gerardus Hendrikus Janmaat was born on 3 November 1934 in Nes aan de Amstel in North Holland, as the oldest of nine children in a traditional Roman Catholic family.

In 1999, Janmaat was in the process of starting another party, the Conservative Democrats,

He was often accused, and convicted, of committing acts of hate speech, and received fines and a conditional felony prison sentence for incitement to hatred and discrimination against foreigners. and said he was not saddened by the sudden death of political opponent Ien Dales.

Meindert Fennema, Emeritus Professor of Political Theory of Ethnic Relations at the University of Amsterdam, argued in 2006 that Janmaat was convicted for statements that are now commonplace due to changes in the political climate (caused in part by the September 11 attacks, and the assassinations of Pim Fortuyn and Theo van Gogh).

As the first public spokesperson who tried to put the topic of immigration on the Dutch political agenda, Janmaat has been mentioned as a forerunner of Pim Fortuyn, Geert Wilders and Thierry Baudet and their parties Leefbaar Nederland (and later Lijst Pim Fortuyn), Partij voor de Vrijheid and Forum voor Democratie, which booked massive electoral successes in the following decades.