Wijnand Duyvendak

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Anton Johan Wijnand (Wijnand) Duijvendak
Wijnand Duyvendak

Member of the Tweede Kamer
In office
2002 – present

Born 30 November 1957 (1957-11-30) (age 50)
Markelo, Netherlands
Political party GreenLeft
Spouse Miriam de Rijk
Residence Amsterdam, Netherlands

Anton Johan Wijnand Duijvendak (Markelo, 30 November 1957; called Wijnand Duyvendak[1]) is a Dutch politician. He is member of the Tweede Kamer for the GreenLeft.

Duyvendak is the eldest son of the minister of Zeist. After his high school he studied sociology at the University of Amsterdam between 1976 and 1980. He did not finish he studies and instead became involved the leftwing Amsterdam action world: he became involved in the squating movement and the anti-militarist action group Onkruit, In 1984 he was six weeks in jail for breaking into a military complex with Onkruit. Between 1984 and 1987 he wrote for the radical magazine Bluf!. After that he became involved in the Anti-Apartheid Committee "Get Shell out of South Africa" and he was editor at the publisher Ravijn. De Telegraaf and HP/De Tijd-journalist Peter Siebelt have claimed that Duyvendak was involved with the violent Revolutionary Anti-Racist Action group. Duyvendak has always denied any involvement in violent action. In 1993 he began to work for MilieuDefensie and led their campaigns on Schiphol. In 1999 he became director of MilieuDefensie's bureau, which he remained until 2002.

Duyvendak was elected in the 2002 elections. In parliament he focuses on environmental issues, spatial planning and transport. He is the most important green face of the GreenLeft. He has initiated some plans for governmental reform, including the temporary law on the referendum, together with Niesco Dubbelboer of the social-democratic PvdA, which was rejected in 2005 and a constitutional amendment enabling a referendum, together with Dubbelboer and Boris van der Ham of the social-liberal D66. He has also research the power of committees, commissions and councils, which are not within the grasp of parliament and form a "shadow-power" in his view. He also chairs the GreenLeft's campaigning committee.

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