Barry Madlener

Barry Madlener (born 6 January 1969) is a Dutch politician, who has served as Minister of Infrastructure and Water Management in the Schoof cabinet since July 2024. A member of the Party for Freedom (PVV), he was first elected to the House of Representatives in 2006. He became the PVV's leader in the European Parliament following the 2009 election. Madlener resigned from that position to again serve in the House of Representatives from the 2012 general election until 2024.

Early life
During his youth, Madlener lived in the south seaside village of Oostvoorne with his parents and older sister. He later moved to Rotterdam for his studies. After graduating from high school he became a real estate agent and spent a number of years selling commercial real estate. On 14 March 2002 he was inaugurated as a member of the municipal council of Rotterdam for Livable Rotterdam, a position he held until 2007. Together with Kay van der Linde he was also involved in establishing the Livable Netherlands political party.

Livable Rotterdam
At the 2002 municipal election, Madlener was listed eleventh on the Livable Rotterdam list, the local party whose leader Pim Fortuyn was assassinated later that year. Madlener was considered a confidant of Fortuyn. The party won 17 seats in these historical elections on 6 March 2002. As a municipal councillor Madlener was infrastructure spokesman. In that function he was an outspoken supporter of the construction of a campus at the Erasmus University Rotterdam. He was also in favour of prohibiting municipal civil servants wearing a veil. He put forward two proposals: a proposal to prohibit carrying religious symbols for all civil servants, as well as a second proposal to the same effect for teachers and support staff at schools. He also stated that physical education at Muslim schools should be a mixed gender class.

National and European politics
Elected to the House of Representatives in the 2006 general election, he was placed seventh on the Party for Freedom list led by Geert Wilders. It was the first general election in which the party participated. Madlener resigned as a Rotterdam municipal councillor on 1 July 2007. He led the PVV in the 2009 European Parliament election before returning to the House of Representatives following the 2012 election. He became the PVV's spokesperson for infrastructure after the 2017 general election, and his specialty has been housing following the November 2023 election. Over the years, he has advocated merging passenger railway operator Nederlandse Spoorwegen and railway infrastructure management organization ProRail, and he has opposed establishing an international rail connection between Eindhoven and Aachen in Germany.

After the PVV, VVD, NSC, and BBB formed the Schoof cabinet, Madlener was sworn in as Minister of Infrastructure and Water Management on 2 July 2024.

Personal life
Madlener has been a long-time resident of the South Holland village of Rockanje.