On Tuesday, July 8, the Senate commemorated former senator Marijke Linthorst. She passed away on May 28, 2025, at the age of 73. Linthorst was a member of the PvdA faction from June 13, 1995, to June 8, 1999, and from June 10, 2003, to June 9, 2015. From July 9, 2013, to June 9, 2015, she was also Vice President of the Senate. In the Senate, she spoke on behalf of the PvdA faction about spatial planning and education.
Ideas Organization
Before entering politics, Marijke Linthorst was involved in several social initiatives. After graduating, she worked for nearly ten years as a staff member at the political-cultural center De Populier in Amsterdam, now the debate center De Balie. She then started the Ideas Organization in 1987.
As an independent researcher, project manager, and advisor, she was involved in projects for social and administrative renewal in Rotterdam, Utrecht, and The Hague. She was the initiator of the Recovery Plan for the Old North in Rotterdam and later the rapporteur of the Task Group on Social Infrastructure in the Maas city. She also advised the municipality of Amsterdam on better collaboration between the city and its districts.
Caribbean
Her motivation to run for the Senate was driven by a strong interest in the Caribbean part of the Kingdom. Linthorst had noticed in Rotterdam that many Antillean youth were struggling in urban society, and she wanted to address this. She regularly advocated for fairer and more direct relations between representatives from the Caribbean and the European part of the Kingdom.
Principles
Linhorst frequently expressed her views on the role and function of the Senate. Once, she compared the role of the Senate in legislation to the construction of a house: One wants a conservatory, the other a balcony. We look: does the door still lead somewhere? Is the law still balanced?
She was wary of the political role of the Senate. In NRC, she wrote in 2001 (in an essay): The Senate should not develop into a Chamber of Second Chances, nor into a second House of Representatives. The Senate only has a right to exist if it remains a Chamber of Reflection.
She voted several times as the only one from her faction against a bill, such as in 2014 when she opposed the restriction of free choice of doctors on principled grounds.