Positions / 2026
Social-liberal. Pro-European.
Institutions over noise.
Politics is not a personality quiz. These are the values I start from, the tools I reach for, and the trade-offs I won't pretend don't exist.
Three things I start from
Social-liberal
Evidence before spectacle
Pro-European
Evidence before spectacle
Institutions over noise
Evidence before spectacle
I chose to take a place on the ballot.
Number 12 on D66 Ede's municipal candidate list, March 2026, because affordable housing, public transport, equal opportunity and a fair sustainable future also need people willing to do the local work.
Institutions matter most when politics gets loud.
Democracy is more than winning a vote. It runs on a free press, independent courts, evidence you can check, and politicians who accept limits on their own power. I want debate to get sharper on facts and calmer about people. That's why I check voting records and original documents before I repeat a claim.
Institutions can be slow and distant. Defending them also means reforming them, explaining what they do, and making them easier to challenge.
More federal, and more accountable.
I'm strongly pro-European. Shared problems need shared power, democratic control, and a Union that can act instead of just coordinate. Climate, security, technology, migration and economic power don't stop at a border.
More European capacity can feel like more distance. The answer isn't retreat, it's stronger parliamentary control, clearer responsibility and a public European conversation.
Use markets for energy, government for direction.
Markets reward initiative and turn ideas into useful products. But they don't automatically deliver affordable homes, resilient infrastructure or equal starting points. Government should set fair rules, invest for the long term, and step in where concentrated power or short-term incentives hurt the public interest.
Rules can protect people and still become needlessly rigid. Good policy measures outcomes, cuts dead weight, and stays willing to change course.
Your postcode should not set your ceiling.
Equal opportunity needs more than encouragement. It needs housing, education and transport that make participation actually possible. My own route runs from MBO software development to European Studies, so I know how educational labels can turn into social rankings.
Opportunity can't promise identical outcomes. It can demand that talent isn't wasted because access, expectations or inherited advantage got in the way.
Ambition only lasts when the transition is fair.
A sustainable future needs decisions now. I support public direction and investment that make clean choices accessible rather than punitive. The transition holds politically when households, workers and regions can see a route through it and the biggest polluters carry a proportionate share.
Speed and consent can pull in different directions. Leadership means setting a credible course while fixing policies that create avoidable unfairness.
Be honest about capacity, humane about people.
Migration is never one question and people are never one category. Governments need control, fair procedures, and the capacity to decide on time. Politics should tell the difference between asylum, labour, study and family migration, then argue real choices instead of turning complexity into a scary headline.
A humane system still has limits and enforcement. A workable system has to say what those limits are while protecting dignity, legal review and international obligations.