Lodewijk Asscher

Lodewijk Frans Asscher (ˈloːdəʋɛik frɑns ˈɑʃər; born 27 September 1974) is a Dutch politician and jurist who served as Leader of the Labour Party (PvdA) from 2016 to 2021 and parliamentary leader in the House of Representatives from 2017 to 2021. Asscher worked as a researcher at the University of Amsterdam from 1996 until 2002. He was elected as a municipal councillor of Amsterdam on 8 March 2002 and assumed the leadership of the Labour Party in the municipal council on 3 April 2004. He worked as an associate professor of Intellectual property law at the University of Amsterdam from 1 May 2002 until 1 May 2006. Asscher was the lijsttrekker (top candidate) for the PvdA in the 2006 municipal election and became Deputy Mayor and alderman on 26 April 2006. Following the resignation of Mayor of Amsterdam Job Cohen to run for the Labour Party leadership for the election of 2010, Asscher as Deputy Mayor served as ad interim Mayor of Amsterdam from 12 March 2010 until 7 July 2010. After the election of 2012 Asscher was appointed as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Social Affairs and Employment in the Cabinet Rutte II, serving from 5 November 2012 until 26 October 2017. Lodewijk Frans Asscher was born on 27 September 1974 in Amsterdam in a mixed religious family; his father is of Jewish descent and his mother is Catholic. His father is a member of the centre-right People's Party for Freedom and Democracy and his mother a member of the Labour Party. Asscher went to the Christelijk Gymnasium Sorghvliet in The Hague. He studied psychology (propaedeutics in 1995) and Dutch law (master's degree in 1998) at the University of Amsterdam in Amsterdam. In 2002, he received his PhD in law from the University of Amsterdam. Asscher entered the municipal council after the Dutch municipal elections of 2002. Besides his role as the group leader of the Labour Party in the Amsterdam municipal council, he took part in the commission on General Affairs. Until 1 January 2006, Asscher taught information law at the University of Amsterdam.