Femke Merel van Kooten

Femke Merel van Kooten
Femke Merel van Kooten-Arissen in 2017
Member of the municipal council of Woerden
Incumbent
Assumed office 30 March 2022
Member of the House of Representatives
In office 4 February 2019 – 31 March 2021
In office 23 March 2017 – 15 October 2018
Member of the Provincial Council of Utrecht
In office 26 March 2015 – 4 February 2019
Personal details
Born	Femke Merel Arissen 9 November 1983 Huizen, Netherlands
Political party	Splinter (since 2020)
Other political affiliations	Party for the Animals (2003–2019) Party for the Future (2020)
Residence(s)	Woerden, Netherlands
Alma mater	Utrecht University (Bachelor of Laws)

Femke Merel van Kooten-Arissen (pronounced [ˈfɛmkə ˈmeːrəl vɑn ˈkoːtən ˈaːrɪsən]; born 9 November 1983) is a Dutch politician and former member of the House of Representatives.

Political career

Party for the Animals

Van Kooten served as a member of the Provincial Council of Utrecht for the Party for the Animals (PvdD) from 26 March 2015 until 4 February 2019.

She was first elected in the 2017 general election. From 15 October 2018 to 4 February 2019, she was on maternity leave from Parliament.

Independent MP and Party for the Future

On 16 July 2019, she left the PvdD and became an independent MP. In December 2019, she joined 50PLUS but remained an independent member of parliament. She left 50PLUS in May 2020 along with its leader Henk Krol, forming the Party for the Future (PvdT).

After about three months, in early August 2020, she left the PvdT in opposition to its merger with the Otten Group (GO), a party formed by former members of the far-right Forum for Democracy (FvD). The merger had been arranged by Krol without her knowledge. Once again, she became an independent member of parliament, and remained so for the rest of the parliamentary term. The Party for the Future was eventually completely dissolved before the end of 2020.

Leader of Splinter

Ahead of the 2021 general election, van Kooten founded her own party named Splinter, and was the party's lead candidate. However, Splinter received only 30,000 votes, less than half of the 70,000 vote threshold required for a seat. As a result, she did not return to the House of Representatives.

As Splinter's lead candidate, Van Kooten was elected to the municipal council of Woerden in the 2022 municipal election, taking office on 30 March of that year. She attempted to return to the House of Representatives in the 2023 general election, but her party received 13,000 votes and won no seats.

Electoral history