ANPAdri Duivesteijn during the debate on the Housing Agreement in December 2013
NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 16:38
Thick Verkuil
editor online
Thick Verkuil
editor online
PvdA politician Adri Duivesteijn, who died today at the age of 72 after a long illness, was a social democrat of the old school. A crafty power politician with ideals, who went through rows and diamonds to achieve his goals. A stubborn, unempathetic loner who did not care about party discipline.
With that attitude, as a senator, he twice brought the second Rutte cabinet to the brink of collapse.
Affordable housing
In the Senate, the government parties VVD and PvdA depended on support from the so-called ‘constructive opposition’, which gave them the smallest conceivable majority. Duivesteijn was given a key position when he became an interim member of the Senate in 2013. He had little feeling for the cooperation with the VVD and had little respect for PvdA leader Diederik Samsom, who in his eyes squandered left-wing ideals.
In December 2013 he threatened to vote against the housing agreement that had been concluded with ‘the constructive opposition’. Large levies were imposed on housing associations, which clashed with his ideal of affordable housing for the lowest incomes. He was put under great pressure, after which he voted in favor on the night of December 18. In his own words, he had spared the cabinet in ‘the Night of Duivesteijn’ to prevent political chaos.
Free choice of doctor
A year later he opposed the Health Care Act of VVD minister Edith Schippers, because it restricted the free choice of doctors. People with cheap health insurance would not be able to choose their own doctor. “That is a dichotomy in healthcare. A social democrat can only revolt against that,” he said.
prostate cancer
In interviews he said that he was also driven by personal experience. He had been battling an aggressive form of prostate cancer since 2006 and had sought another doctor after being told he had run out of treatment. Medications have kept him going ever since. He believed that everyone had the right to such a free choice of doctor.
Rutte and Schippers showed their anger privately to the PvdA, which they said had shown itself to be an unreliable partner. Yet, as so often under Rutte, ‘a goat path’ was found. The law was resubmitted with a slightly amended text, allowing anyone, regardless of policy, to request a second opinion. Duivesteijn had triumphed, but it was also his political swansong. He did not return to the Senate after the 2015 elections.
Schilderswijk
Duivesteijn had always been a representative of alderman socialism, in the tradition of Wibaut and Schaeffer. As alderman for housing and spatial planning in The Hague (from 1980 to 1989) and Almere (from 2006 to 2013), he had shown himself to be a decisive administrator.
He was born in the Schilderswijk in The Hague, where he also grew up and started his political career, with an action group against the decay of the neighborhood.
As alderman, he successfully opposed the demolition of the Schilderswijk and other impoverished neighborhoods and their replacement by mediocre ‘cauliflower neighborhoods’ that could also have been in Zoetermeer or Purmerend. He distanced himself from ‘profit-driven production thinking’ and wanted to improve the social and architectural quality of the working-class neighbourhoods. In 1987 he received the Berlage Prize for it and in 2014 he became an honorary citizen of The Hague, because of his “lasting significance” for public housing.
Construction alderman
In 1994 Duivesteijn became a member of the House of Representatives, where he became known as a left-wing PvdA member who fought for the lowest incomes. In his eyes, the PvdA went from bad to worse. He was unhappy that party leader and prime minister Wim Kok was “shaking off the ideological feathers”. In Wouter Bos, party leader from 2002 to 2010, he did not even recognize a social democrat.
He no longer felt at home in the party and faction, but regained his zest when he became alderman in Almere in 2006. While he continued to live in The Hague, he shook up Almere. Old plans disappeared into the paper shredder and new ones took their place, for the construction of 60,000 homes. Characteristic was that residents could build their own house according to their own wishes and without many restrictions.
According to him, Almere had to be optimally connected to Amsterdam. “I think it is essential that Almere anchors itself in the Amsterdam Metropolis,” he said. “It must become a matter of course to travel from Almere to the center of Amsterdam. And vice versa. We must reach the point where it is quite normal to do your shopping at the Rokin and then leave the metro in Almere 20 minutes later. That is in London or Paris as well.”
Inspired by the idea of the ‘Green City’, he also brought the Floriade to Almere, which ended in a financial debacle. Duivesteijn was long gone by then.
In recent years he has lived “from treatment to treatment”, he told AD at the end of 2021. “It makes some people depressed. Fortunately, that is not in my nature. As a director you often have people say why something is not possible. Then I say: ‘Could you perhaps spend five minutes asking why it could be done? ‘ And then it often works out. I’ve retained that attitude to this day.”
