Marja van Bijsterveldt

Janneke Marlene "Marja" van Bijsterveldt-Vliegenthart (born 27 June 1961) is a Dutch politician of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA). She has been mayor of Delft since 2 September 2016.

Early life

Van Bijsterveldt attended nursing school and worked in healthcare.

Politics In 1990 she became politically active for the Christian Democratic Appeal. She was an alderwoman (member) of the Almere municipal council but left her post after the mayor of Almere's expenses were investigated. Van Bijsterveldt disagreed with the way the other aldermen of the social-democratic PvdA and the liberal VVD had dealt with the matter, and following a motion of no-confidence she resigned.

In 1994 she was appointed to be Mayor of Schipluiden and at age 33, she became the youngest Mayor in Dutch history. She also was active within the CDA, first as chair of the Christian Democratic Youth Appeal (CDJA), the CDA's youth organization and later as chair of the CDA-women's council. In November 2002 van Bijsterveldt became party chair of the CDA. She was the first chair directly elected by the CDA membership. She beat the other candidate with 26,542 against 9,574 votes. She was reelected for a period of four years in 2006.

On 22 February 2007 Van Bijsterveldt was appointed State secretary for Education, Culture and Science in the fourth Fourth Balkenende cabinet. In August 2009 she made a speech in the States General about Laura Dekker, a thirteen-year-old Dutch citizen whose plans to circumnavigate the world solo caused international controversy. Van Bijsterveldt spoke against Dekker and agreed with the decision to make her a ward of court. In her recent interview with De Telegraaf, she added: ‘I am concerned about the excessive individualization in the Netherlands’, one of her next tasks before she get retired.

Decorations