Leefbaar Nederland

Leefbaar Nederland (Livable Netherlands) is a political party in the Netherlands, founded on March 21, 1999, by (among others) Jan Nagel[?] and Henk Westbroek[?], respectively chairpersons of Leefbaar Hilversum[?] and Leefbaar Utrecht[?]. Leefbaar Nederland is the national continuation of these successful local parties.

Leefbaar Nederland took part in the national parliamentary elections for the first time on 15 May 2002 and obtained 2 seats in the lower house.

The Lijsttrekker (head of the list of candidates) from November 2001 was former sociologist and ex-professor, writer, and publicist Pim Fortuyn, a choice that delivered a high rating in opinion polls. On February 10, 2002 however he was discharged on account of controversial comments in an interview published in the Volkskrant newspaper. (Fortuyn then organized his own party.)

On March 10, the Amsterdam public prosecutor Fred Teeven[?] was chosen as new lijsttrekker. The party chairperson is Jan Nagel.

The party stood for a strengthening of the level of democracy in Netherlands society, for example by giving citizens more say through referenda, but also by addressing them on their responsibilities.

The essential points of the election campaign for May 2002 were

• opposition to the "old parties" and more influence for the elector
• more say and responsibility for the citizen
• fighting the bureaucracy
• a just asylum-seeker policy

In late 2002 Emile Ratelband[?] was selected as lijsttrekker for the January 2003 elections, but deposed after a short time. He responded by setting up his own party LijstRatelband.nl. Ratelband's successor as lijsttrekker was Haitske van de Linde[?] (born May 7, 1980, so she become lijsttrekker at 22 years old). However, in those elections the party did not manage to win a seat.