Pieter Grinwis

Biography

“A better connection between cities and the countryside”

My family and I live in The Hague, but I grew up on a farm in rural Goeree-Overflakkee. My youngest brother has taken over my parent’s business and I still visit regularly to help bring in the harvest. You could truly say I have one foot in the city and one in the countryside, which is a valuable position to be in with the urban-rural divide growing wider and wider. I would love to build a better connection between those two worlds, and I am very eager to help create a simpler, more equitable tax system. Our current system is unfair and our system of benefits and relief is just too complicated. I spent the last few years developing a plan for ChristenUnie to help make our tax system better and more understandable.

Oh oh Den Haag

Before becoming an MP, I spent seven years as a municipal councillor in The Hague. This is the most segregated city I know and the gap is in danger of getting even wider. Neighbourhoods like Moerwijk are an accurate mirror of social developments. Neighbourhood renovation stalled during the credit crunch, leaving many houses in poor condition, plagued by moisture and mould. On average, residents of Moerdijk stay healthy for 13 years less than their counterparts in better neighbourhoods. It is our duty to offer a positive outlook to these neighbourhoods and people, to get more people singing the first line from the song 'Oh oh Den Haag' again: "Ik zou best nog wel een keertje net als vroeger in Moerwijk willen wonen ” (How I would love to move back to Moerwijk).”

Collaboration

Another important lesson I have learned is that shouting about political goals is not the same as achieving them. Politics are a craft: you need good plans, you have to be willing to work together, and a sense of timing is essential. With this in mind, I hope that my work as an MP will make a real contribution to creating a just country in which civilians, business owners and future generations can thrive.

Education

• Public Administration Science: Economy, Policy and Management

Career

• Policy officer House of Representatives for Finance, ChristenUnie, 2016-2021
• Policy officer for The Senate, ChristenUnie, 2015-2019
• Party Leader for ChristenUnie/SGP in the Municipality of The Hague, The Hague, from 2014
• Administrative and financial-economic advisor to Wim Kuijken, 2010-2015
• Political Assistant to Tineke Huizinga, 2007-2010
• Policy officer House of Representatives for Economic Affairs, Finance, Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality, Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment and Foreign Development Cooperation, ChristenUnie, 2004-2007
• Policy officer House of Representatives, ChristenUnie, 2003-2004