Dr. Jan Peter Balkenende (born May 7, 1956) has been the Prime Minister of the Netherlands since July 22, 2002. On 30 June 2006 he offered his resignation to Queen Beatrix after his coalition government lost its majority in the Dutch parliament the previous day. He formed a new cabinet, which had been installed on 7 July 2006.

Personal life

Dr. Jan Peter Balkenende, legally Jan Pieter Balkenende, was born on May 7, 1956 in the village Biezelinge near the town Kapelle in the Netherlands. His father Jan Pieter Balkenende was a cereal grains merchant and his mother Thona Johanna Sandee was a teacher. He went to a Protestant primary school in Kapelle. He went to the secondary school "Christian Lyceum for Zeeland" in Goes (1968–1974).
He studied history (1974–1980) and law (1979–1982) at the Free University of Amsterdam, where he received his PhD (law) in 1992.
Balkenende currently resides with his wife, Bianca Hoogendijk, and his daughter Amelie in Capelle aan den IJssel. He rents an apartment in The Hague rather than inhabit the Catshuis formal residency of the Prime Minister. He is a devout member of the Calvinist Protestant Church in the Netherlands.
Political career

Early political career

He began his career on the staff of the research institute of the political party Christen Democratisch Appèl (CDA) and as a city councillor in Amstelveen. He later became a special professor of Christian-Social Thought at the Free University of Amsterdam.
Balkenende first entered the Tweede Kamer on 19 May 1998 while the CDA was in opposition. He became the CDA's financial spokesman and was also involved with social affairs, justice, and domestic affairs. In this role he advocated a substational reduction of the national debt and sound public finances.
He was elected Chairman of the parliamentary CDA party on 1 October 2001, in succession to Jaap de Hoop Scheffer. On 3 November 2001, he was appointed lijsttrekker for the CDA in the May 2002 parliamentary elections. These elections became historic when populist Pim Fortuyn was assassinated and the election campaign was halted. The result of the election restored the CDA's former position as the largest political party in the Dutch parliament.

Prime Minister

Balkenende has been the Prime Minister of four different cabinets.

Balkenende I

On 4 July 2002 Queen Beatrix asked Balkenende to form a new government, in the wake of the resignation of Prime Minister Wim Kok. This cabinet is known as Balkenende I. This government (including the LPF party of the murdered politician Pim Fortuyn) resigned after just 86 days in office because of infighting in the LPF which destabilised the government.

Balkenende II

After early elections in 2003 Balkenende formed his second government Balkenende II with the liberal VVD and the progressive liberal D66. Once again leader of a centre-right coalition, Balkenende's policies centred around reform of the Dutch public services, reducing crime, a tough immigration policy and historically large cuts in public spending. The measures gave rise to large public anger and bad results in opinion polls for his CDA party. While his party remained the largest Dutch delegation in the European Parliament after the European Elections, beating the general expectation of a huge loss in parliamentary seats, the party suffered massive losses during Dutch Municipal Elections of 2006, losing their position as the largest party in many municipalities. Despite his unpopularity among Dutch voters (polls in 2006 showed that only 26-33% of the voters had confidence in him as prime minister), his position as leader of the CDA has been stable. In the beginning of 2006, some CDA members tried to replace Balkenende as leader by replacing him with minister Cees Veerman. Veerman did not accept this and offered his support to Balkenende. Balkenende's popularity has been rising steadily, surpassing that of his main competitor Wouter Bos in the autumn of 2006. By then, 53% preferred Balkenende as Prime Minister with 40% preferring Bos. This switch in public opinion is sometimes explained by the steady recovery of the Dutch economy during the last year of his administration, combined with declining confidence in Bos as a good alternative for the position of prime-minister.
On 1 July 2004 he took up the rotating presidency of the European Union.

Balkenende III

On 30 June 2006 D66, the smallest coalition party, withdrew its support of the government over the way immigration minister Rita Verdonk had handled the crisis around the naturalisation of Dutch MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Balkenende resigned for the second time as Prime Minister, announced early elections and presented his third government a week later. This cabinet, formed of a minority coalition of CDA and VVD, did stay in office until the elections of 22 November 2006.

Balkenende IV

The Fourth Balkenende cabinet is the new coalition cabinet of the Netherlands, formed by Balkenende, who was appointed formateur by Queen Beatrix on February 9, 2007. His cabinet was announced on February 13, and installed on February 22. The cabinet is scheduled to be in office until 2011.

Harry Potter diplomatic incident

Balkenende is sometimes referred to as "Harry Potter" by Dutch citizens because of his physical resemblance to the storybook character. On the occasion of April Fool's Day 2003, the Dutch children's news program, Jeugdjournaal, announced that Balkenende was going to play a small role in the next Harry Potter movie as Harry's father.
On 4 June 2005, this comparison was made by Belgian Minister of Foreign Affairs Karel De Gucht in the Flemish newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws (The Latest News). De Gucht stated that "Balkenende is a mix of Harry Potter and a petty rigid bourgeois mentality". This caused a small diplomatic controversy, and the Belgian ambassador had to apologise to Ben Bot, the Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Jan Pieter Balkenende (dit Jan Peter Balkenende) est un homme politique néerlandais né le 7 mai 1956 à Biezelinge, un petit village de Zélande. Il est le ministre-président des Pays-Bas depuis le 22 juillet 2002. Il est membre du Christen-Democratisch Appèl (CDA), parti des chrétiens-démocrates. Actuellement, il est au pouvoir avec son quatrième gouvernement. Son premier gouvernement n'avait duré que 82 jours, ceci notamment en raison de dissensions avec les partenaires de coalition. Son deuxième gouvernement a pris fin en juin 2006 lors du départ d'un parti de la coalition provoqué par un différend concernant la ministre de l'Immigration.
Il était tête de liste de son parti pour les élections législatives de novembre 2006. Ce dernier est arrivé en tête, mais il à dû cependant composer un gouvernement de Grande Coalition avec les sociaux-démocratres du PvdA, ainsi qu'avec ChristenUnie.
Son visage juvénile, sa coupe de cheveux et sa paire de lunettes lui ont valu le sobriquet de "Harry Potter".

From Wikipedia.org