The longest-serving member of the Senate, Tiny Kox of the SP, is leaving the Senate. Kox, now 70, took office in 2003 and was party leader for nineteen years. “I have had the honor of being part of the Senate for more than twenty years,” the nestor writes the SP website. “We drew attention to child poverty, stopped rent increases and helped the corrective referendum to gain a majority.”
SP leader Jimmy Dijk wrote on X: “With him comes more than twenty years of experience, wise words and social struggles. Tiny, thank you very much for everything you have done for the SP, our ideals and for the people in the country!” Last week, Kox also resigned as chairman of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg. In that position he oversaw, among other things, Russian elections.
Kox’s seat will be taken over in mid-February by Lies van Aelst, the SP faction leader in South Holland. The new nestor of the Senate will then be Niko Koffeman of the Party for the Animals.