Gideon van Meijeren

Gideon Frederik Cornelis van Meijeren (born 27 May 1988) is a Dutch civil servant and politician, who has been representing Forum for Democracy (FVD) in the House of Representatives since the 2021 general election.

He also held a seat in the States of South Holland and was elected to the municipal council of The Hague in 2022.

He previously worked as a legislative adviser for the government.

His opposition to the government's policy to mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic and his statements regarding democracy – including speculation about an overthrow of the government – have drawn stark criticism from political leaders.

Van Meijeren was born and raised in the Achterhoek city of Doetinchem.

He has two siblings and is the middle child.

Van Meijeren attended the secondary school Ulenhofcollege between 2000 and 2006 at havo level.

He then studied law at the Juridische Hogeschool in Tilburg, receiving his propedeuse in 2007, and followed a short officer training at the Royal Military Academy in Breda until 2008.

Van Meijeren worked for 3.5 years as an IT employee for the Royal Netherlands Army.

He returned to college studying law in the years 2011–15 at Radboud University Nijmegen, and subsequently found a job as a legislative adviser at the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations.

Van Meijeren joined Forum for Democracy when it became a political party in 2016, and he became active within the party, having been unable to practice his political convictions in his job.

He filled that same position starting in 2017 at the legislative office of the House of Representatives, offering legislative advice to any political party.

He started working as a legal assistant of Forum for Democracy's House caucus in November 2018.

He was elected to the States of South Holland as FVD's fifth candidate in the 2019 provincial elections, and he became the party's spokesperson for climate and reactive nitrogen in that legislative chamber.

He was also placed eighth on the party list in the European Parliament election two months later.

In the provincial council, Van Meijeren unsuccessfully called for a referendum about the construction of wind turbines and solar farms, saying that South Holland's plans were anti-democratic.

He also participated in a July 2020 Farmers Defence Force protest near the RIVM's headquarters in Bilthoven against a measure to limit reactive nitrogen emissions, which would affect farmers.

Following a November 2020 article by Het Parool about extremist thoughts of members of the FVD's youth wing, five out of the seven provincial councilors in the States of South Holland left the party.

Van Meijeren continued to be a member of Forum for Democracy and became the leader of the South Holland caucus.

A few months later, Elsevier Weekblad reported that Van Meijeren had replied "Hell no" in a WhatsApp group chat, after party leader Thierry Baudet had asked "Would you want your sister to come home with a negro?"

Van Meijeren explained that it was an inside joke in a discussion about institutional racism, saying that his ex-girlfriend is Antillean and that his sister is married to a person of colour.

Van Meijeren decided to keep his seat in the States of South Holland when he was elected to the House of Representatives in 2021, but he stepped down as caucus leader.

He was Forum for Democracy's lead candidate in The Hague in the March 2022 municipal elections, leading to his election to the municipal council.

He was sworn in on 30 March.

He was also the lijstduwer of his party in the same election in Doetinchem, in which his father, Lambert van Meijeren, a former Albert Heijn branch manager, was elected to the council as FVD's lead candidate.

Van Meijeren was lijstduwer in South Holland in the March 2023 provincial elections.

He raised doubts about the election results in advance, saying that those in power would be willing to go far to keep out rivals.

Van Meijeren was re-elected to the States of South Holland due to his 10,177 preference votes, but he declined his seat.

Forum for Democracy had won two seats in total.

Near the end of his term, NOS and regional broadcasters featured Van Meijeren in an article about the most absent members of provincial councils.

The article noted that Van Meijeren had been absent during 13 out of 30 meetings, making him the tenth most absent provincial council member in the country.

He joined the Forum for Democracy's board as secretary in January 2021 and was its sixth candidate in the 2021 general election.

During the campaign, he said that he wanted to introduce a bill prohibiting censorship by social media companies and that he wanted the mayorship to be an elected office.

He also told that he feared immigration, as it would make the Netherlands unrecognizable and would ruin the welfare state.

He was elected to the House of Representatives with 602 preference votes, was installed on 31 March, and became FVD's spokesperson for justice, security, immigration, agriculture, nature, and the interior.

Van Meijeren is part of the contact group Belgium, and he is on the parliamentary Committees for Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality; for the Interior; and for Justice and Security.

He opposed lockdowns and measures to mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic in the Netherlands, saying that its implementers would be prosecuted and locked up for taking away freedoms.

He later opposed the Dutch vaccination program against the disease.

Van Meijeren's comments and actions in parliament related to the issue have sparked several controversies.

In May 2021, he violated social distancing rules – in effect due to the COVID-19 pandemic – after the maiden speech of fellow member of parliament Simone Kerseboom, when he congratulated her by kissing and hugging her.