Four years ago, doctor and member of the Senate Jan Anthonie Bruijn tried to win over the senators in the presidential election with jokes. At his re-election Tuesday afternoon, a serious-looking man stood behind the podium of the Senate. A lot had happened in the months leading up to the election: officials thought he was acting authoritarian and unpleasant towards them. He was approached by the clerk about this and apologized.
Despite the complaints, Bruijn may remain chairman, it turned out on Tuesday afternoon. A large majority of 44 senators voted for the VVD member. Opposing candidate Mei Li Vos of the combined fraction of PvdA and GroenLinks received 26 votes, including from the senators of coalition party D66. Four MPs voted for no one.
The chances for Vos dwindled when the BBB, with sixteen seats the largest party in the senate, announced on Friday that it would vote for Bruijn. Bruijn’s apologies for his behavior and the “improvement trajectory” he promises to embark on were enough for party leader Ilona Lagas and her group members to support him. With that, Bruijn was well on his way to obtaining the required absolute majority of 38 votes from 75 senators.
Dance party of the nobility
Because of BBB’s choice, Vos also had to convince right-wing parties to vote for her. In her application letter and during her brief explanation on Tuesday afternoon, she presented herself as a chairman who would intervene in personal attacks. JA21, PVV and FVD did not like that. They were concerned about restrictions on freedom of expression, they said.
On Tuesday, the senate re-elected a VVD member who has been a member of the Senate for more than ten years, four of which as president of the House. In 2012, Bruijn came to the Senate in the interim when his fellow party member Jos van Rey left after a corruption affair. Bruijn has long been the silent force behind Prime Minister Mark Rutte and co-wrote three election programs of the VVD (2010, 2012 and 2017).
Bruijn (65) is professor of immunopathology and a physician at the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) specializing in kidney diseases. NRC research in 2019 found him to be the senator with the most positions in addition to his membership in the senate. His CV listed committees and supervisory boards that are partly related to his work as a doctor, but also, for example, a committee for a dance party for the Dutch nobility.
During his presidency over the past four years, debates were heated. In 2022, Bruijn denied PVV group leader Marjolein Faber the floor after she called the government “the fifth column”.
Bruijn is also co-founder of the Hermes House Band, the band of the Rotterdam Student Corps. The band scored a hit with a cover of Gloria Gaynor’s ‘I Will Survive’. Bruijn likes to play the piano and church organ, loves cabaret, and grew up in a family with three brothers and a sister. His father had his own company, he said in his explanation on Tuesday afternoon. He says he learned a lot from it. Don’t run away when the going gets tough, for example.
It seemed to be a reference to employee reports.
Bruijn was approached a month ago by the clerk of the senate about his behavior, after persistent reports from employees. The chairman reacted shocked, called it “micromanagement” and apologized. He also saw that as a positive: on Tuesday afternoon, Bruijn said he was happy with his employees and clerk who approached him about “things that could be improved”.
Once re-elected, Bruijn thanked the Chamber for its confidence. One of his first action points, he promises: a code of conduct for senators.
A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper on June 28, 2023.