| Thierry Aartsen | |
| Office1: | Member of the House of Representatives |
| Term Start1: | 13 September 2018 |
| Birthname: | Alfons Adrianus Aartsen |
| Birth Date: | 19 December 1989 |
| Birth Place: | Breda, Netherlands |
| Nationality: | Dutch |
| Party: | People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) |
Alfons Adrianus (Thierry) Aartsen (born 19 December 1989) is a Dutch politician who has been serving as a Member of the House of Representatives since September 2018. He served as a councillor of Breda municipality between 2010 and 2018. Aartsen is a member of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD).
Aartsen completed the havo at the Newmancollege in Breda. Afterwards, he studied European Studies at The Hague University of Applied Sciences, where he obtained a bachelor's degree.[1]
Aartsen joined the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) in 2007. In 2010, Aartsen was elected a member of the Breda municipal council. He was re-elected twice, in 2014 and 2018. He served as the chairman of the VVD in the council from 2015 to 2018. Aartsen also worked as an account manager at FME-CWM from 2013 to 2018.
For the 2017 general election, Aartsen placed 46th on the VVD's list of candidates, which was not high enough for him to be elected. In September 2018, the VVD announced that they had selected Aaartsen to succeed Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert. On 13 September, he was sworn in as a member of the House of Representatives.[2] When he took office, he received criticism for a number of tweets that he had posted a few years earlier concerning suicides by train causing him delays. He apologised for the tweets.[3] Following his re-election in 2023, Aartsen became the VVD's spokesperson for socioeconomic policy, labor migration, retirement benefits, and the Dutch royal house.[4]
Aartsen has referred to the Dutch welfare system as "a kind of redistribution monster", arguing that reductions in benefits as income increases discourage work and place the working middle class at a disadvantage. He has advocated for reforms to the system of benefits and tax credits.[5]
He wrote a white paper on labor migration in 2024, marking a partial break with the VVD's prior stance against limiting the practice. Aartsen attributed housing, education, and healthcare issues to increased migration overall, which he described as the most pressing political issue. He argued that reliance on unskilled foreign workers should be reduced by subsidizing automation and by ultimately increasing labor costs for specific sectors. Aartsen also suggested that companies along with municipalities should take on greater responsibility for housing labor migrants.[6] [7]
| Body | Party | Votes | Result | . | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party seats | Individual | |||||||||||
| 2017 | House of Representatives | VVD | style=text-align:right | 46 | style=text-align:right | 1,342 | style=text-align:right | 33 | [8] | |||
| 2021 | House of Representatives | VVD | style=text-align:right | 11 | style=text-align:right | 5,441 | style=text-align:right | 34 | [9] | |||
| 2023 | House of Representatives | VVD | style=text-align:right | 13 | style=text-align:right | 4,071 | style=text-align:right | 24 | [10] |