Rosanne Hertzberger

Biography

“You need someone who is willing to speak up”

Reliability, honesty, and integrity are very important to me and I will fight to protect these values as an MP. I like to think of myself as an analytical person in how I approach people, society and academia. My goal is to humanise policy-making: we need to prioritise our values over the output of algorithms, data and hard science.

Goodbye to the sidelines

I spent years as a commentator on the political sidelines. At the time, I was a microbiologist at VU University Amsterdam and I wrote a weekly column in NRC Handelsblad for many years. Various instalments of my column prompted MPs to ask parliamentary questions and I also frequently ran into MPs behind the scenes. I had always thought that I did not have what it took to be an MP, but I found myself being drawn closer and closer to politics during the COVID-19 pandemic. Shadowing Pieter Omtzigt for two days convinced me to take the leap. It is a very interesting job that keeps throwing curve balls your way.

Music

In my spare time, I enjoy sailing and going to the beach with my family. Music plays a big part in my life, from classical to Amy Winehouse, whose album Back to Black is my absolute favourite. I also play the piano and love to sing.