Jan Nagel

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Johan George (Jan) Nagel (Amsterdam, June 20, 1939) is a former Dutch politician. He started his career in his twenties on the VARA-Radio where he worked as producer. At the same time he served as a member of the executive committee of the Dutch Labour Party.

Nagel was one of the creators of the radio-program called In de Rooie Haan. He also wrote his Tien over Rood which served as a political manifesto of the Nieuw Links within the Dutch Labour Party. From 1977 to 1983 Nagel was a PvdA’s deputy in the Dutch Lower House of the Parliament.

At the VARA-Radio he eventually became the editor-in-chief of the Achter het Nieuws. He also created the famous program De Kloof.

Preoccupied with the problem of the widening gap between the politics and the people he founded in 1993 a local party called Leefbaar Hilversum. Soon after, in 2001, he established Leefbaar Nederland where he worked with Henk Westbroek,Willem van Kooten, Ton Luiting, Broos Schnetz and Pim Fortuyn.

In 2005 followed another initiative: Party for Justice, Action and Progress (in Dutch: Partij voor Rechtvaardigheid, Daadkracht en Vooruitgang (PRDV)) which he founded together with the former spokesman for the police Klaas Wilting, entrepreneur Peter C. Schouten and the party’s first lijsttrekker reporter Peter R. de Vries.

As a skilful strategist Nagel is often referred to as Rasputin of the Labour Party or Machiavelli of Hilversum. His autobiography Boven het maaiveld was published in 2001 with anecdotes from the Hague politics and the ever-changing world of mass media.