FNP’s Auke van der Goot from Groningen was elected on Saturday as candidate number 1 for a seat in the Dutch Senate on behalf of the OPNL cooperation platform of regional parties. FNP and other regional and local parties in the Netherlands achieved more than sufficient votes at the regional elections last Wednesday to obtain a seat in the Senate.
The Council of Members of OPNL (Onafhankelijke Politiek Nederland – Independent Politics Netherlands), previously OSF) chose among seven candidates from all over the country. Van der Goot collected the largest number of voting points. The current OPNL-Senator, Ton Raven from Limburg, became second on the list of candidates.
Whether Van der Goot will indeed be able to enter the Senate will depend on the Members of the regional parliaments in all the provinces. They will ultimately choose the Members of the Senate in May. But the preference of the Council of Members of OPNL is an important step into the right directed, according to FNP President Jan Arendz. ‘’Auke van der Goot starts from pole position now.”
Van der Goot, who was born in Leeuwarden-Huizum, worked as a civil servant in Fryslân, The Hague and Brussels. He was policy advisor at the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations (BZK). He worked on the role of local and regional authorities and water authorities in Europe, on the position of border regions and cooperation of those regions with Germany and Belgium. He also contributed to the Use of Frisian Language Act (2013).
OPNL, the platform of regional and local parties currently has one seat in the Dutch Senate. Previous FNP-Senator were Hindrik ten Hoeve and Gerben Gerbrandy.
