Hanneke van der Werf

Johanna Jantina "Hanneke" van der Werf (born 29 November 1984) is a Dutch politician of the Democrats 66 (D66). She was elected to the House of Representatives in 2021. She previously held a seat in the municipal council of The Hague (2014–2021) and worked for the D66 caucus in the House of Representatives (2010–2018).

Early life and career
Van der Werf was born in Hengelo, Overijssel. She lived in nearby Haaksbergen until she was two years old, when her family moved to the village of Rekken. She attended secondary school Het Assink in Haaksbergen and subsequently studied history and journalism at the University of Groningen. From 2008 to 2009, Van der Werf worked as an editor of Den Haag Vandaag at the political news department of NOS, after which she worked as a personal assistant to a member of parliament. Between 2010 and 2018, she worked as a press officer for the D66 caucus in the House of Representatives. She had joined the party in the former year.

Municipal councillor
Van der Werf ran as a candidate in the 2014 municipal election in The Hague, appearing seventh on D66's party list. She did not win a seat, as two candidates lower on the list were elected with preferential votes. She received a temporary seat in April 2014, when one of D66's council members went on sick leave.

Her membership became permanent in June 2014, when another councillor left to become an alderwoman. She was voted chair of the presidium three years later. In 2017, the municipal executive approved a bill she had presented that introduced a six-and-a-half-week paid paternity leave for civil servants. Before, fathers could only take a thirteen-week half-paid parental leave.

Van der Werf was re-elected in 2018 as the second candidate on the party list. Her specialization within her party was security and integration. She succeeded Robert van Asten as D66 caucus leader in The Hague in June 2018, when Van Asten became an alderman in the new executive. In September 2018, Van der Werf stopped working for the D66 caucus in the House of Representatives to take a job at financial services company Aegon as a spokesperson for mortgages, damage and innovation.

As council member, she wanted The Hague to apply for a pilot to test the legal cultivation and distribution of cannabis, but it was not supported by enough parties. She also called for the municipality to do more to prevent female circumcisions. In 2019, the council passed a proposal by Van der Werf to investigate businesses for criminal activities in specific areas. The approach had already been tried in Amsterdam.

House of Representatives
In 2020, it was announced that Van der Werf would run in the 2021 general election. She was the ninth candidate on the party list, six places below her initial third place on the draft version of the list. She was elected, receiving 13,935 preferential votes, and was sworn into the House of Representatives on 31 March. Van der Werf vacated her seat in The Hague council in April. In the House, her specializations were security, terrorism, sex crimes, drugs, asylum, prostitution, human trafficking, and migration, and she was on the Committees for Digital Affairs, for the Interior, and for Justice and Security as well as on Europol's Joint Parliamentary Scrutiny Group. In November 2021, she pled for a central point to aid victims of sexual violence and child abuse. A motion led to an investigation into establishing such a point. An amendment by Van der Werf was later passed to make revenge porn a sex crime, having before been classified as a privacy infringement. In June 2023, she launched a manifesto against aggression and violence together with Joost Sneller (D66). They responded to a perceived hardening of society causing increased hate and aggression, targeting those who serve society in particular. The document called on society, employers, and the government to act, and it was signed by most parties in parliament as well as several professional associations and labor unions.

Van der Werf was appointed national campaign leader of D66 in May 2022 ahead of the 2023 provincial elections. She temporarily left the House of Representatives starting 2 October 2023 due to her parental leave. Van der Werf returned on 29 March 2024 following her re-election in November 2023, and her specialties changed to defense, security, sex crimes, digital affairs, pensions, and benefits.

Personal life
While a member of the House of Representatives, Van der Werf moved from The Hague to Voorburg. She married in 2022 in Rekken, five and a half years after the start of the relationship, and her husband is part of a band called Weekend Warriors. Their daughter was born in 2020.