ANP
NOS News•
Mirjam Bikker, the new party chairman of the ChristenUnie, has a long track record in her party. Today it was announced that the departing Gert-Jan Segers succeeds as political leader and party leader. She will be the first female party leader in the House of Representatives of her party.
The 40-year-old lawyer Bikker has been in the Chamber on behalf of the ChristenUnie since the 2021 elections. She then stepped over from the Senate in the meantime. She was also chairperson there. Before that, she was a municipal councilor in Utrecht (she was also party leader there) and a policy officer for the parliamentary party.
The corona debate
Bikker is known as a passionate and thorough Member of Parliament. In the House of Representatives, she is mainly concerned with justice and public health. She played an important role in the corona debates.
In those debates, Bikker was often critical of the corona pass. She always emphasized that the cabinet had to substantiate it properly if fundamental rights were violated in its approach to the corona crisis.
At one point, Bikker also advocated only allowing visitors to certain locations if they had tested negative, instead of vaccinated people and people who had been cured. In discussions about corona policy, Bikker also turned against parties that only voted against: “Corona is not a free lunch“, she said.
Medical ethical topics
Bikker also spoke in the House on topics such as shortening the consultation period for abortion and the provision of the abortion pill by the GP. Both expansions of the abortion practice have now been adopted by the House of Representatives and the Senate, without the consent of the Christian Union.
The new ChristenUnie party chairman also got involved in the discussion about gambling advertisements. Bikker wants them to be pushed back. She also strongly distanced herself several times from statements made by members of the Forum for Democracy.
In her time as party leader in Utrecht, Bikker drew attention to victims of trafficking in women and forced prostitution, among other things.