Labour’s senate leader quits over holiday and home rent

DutchNews, February 8, 2018

Marleen Barth. Photo: Lex Draijer/PvdA via Wikimedia Commons

The leader of the Labour party in the senate has resigned after coming under fire for not living up to the job. 

Last month it emerged that Barth had tried to have the rent on the home she shares with her husband Jan Hoekema in Wassenaar reduced after he resigned as mayor. They lived at the mayor’s official residence and wanted to stay there longer. 

Then earlier this week, Barth was not in the senate for the key debate on changing Dutch organ donation laws because she was on holiday in the Maldives.

In a statement, Barth said that the holiday had been planned for some time, after a ‘tough and personally unhappy year’. 

‘I have come to realise that continuing to represent the Labour party in the senate will do more harm than good, and that is the last thing that I want,’ she said. 

She will be replaced in the senate by Wouter van Zandbrink and her job as party leader will be taken over by her deputy André Postema.