Willem Winkelman
Willem Winkelman | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Leader of the Thirds | |
| Assumed office 3 November 2009 | |
| Preceded by | Robert Ujson |
| Leader of the National Party | |
| Assumed office 8 April 2004 | |
| Preceded by | Gregor Stīnr |
| Wetaan for Wouterwerk-Laargen, HL | |
| Assumed office 22 May 2002 | |
| Preceded by | Marius Mertens |
| Wetaan for Helland (province) | |
| In office 30 October 1996 – 22 May 2002 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 250px September 11, 1965 Heersduik, Helland, North Vyvland |
| Died | 250px |
| Resting place | 250px |
| Nationality | Vyvlander |
| Political party | National Party |
| Spouse | Alinda Frops |
| Parent |
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Willem Winkelman (Helish pronounciation /ʋɪləm ʋɪŋkəlmɑn/, Vyvlander pronounciation /wiləm wiŋkəlmaːn/) is a Vyvlander politician who is the leader of the National Party, the country's fourth-largest. He is the first leader of the National Party from the former North Vyvland, and the first Helish leader of one of the four major parties. He also stood unsuccessfully in the 2014 presidential election, coming fifth in the first round with 9% of the votes cast. Winkelman is known for his charismatic, adversarial, and often controversial nature in debates, and polarises opinion within Vyvland.
Winkelman is generally described as a right-wing populist, emphasising restricted immigration, regionalism, greater military expenditure and conservative social policy. However, he is also seen to be on the moderate wing of his party, and has helped to guide it to electoral victory since 2005 after modernising the party and moving it away from its previous base of those sympathetic to the former South Vyvland.
Biography
Early life
Winkelman was born in 1965 on the northern outskirts of the city of Heersduik, the capital of the province of Helland. His father, Jos, was an ethnic Hellander who worked for the Vyvlander Navy in the nearby Royal Schierei Naval Base, while his Vyvlander-speaking mother, Jesika, was a part-time cleaner. Willem's father moved to Pee with another woman when Willem was aged just 4, leaving Jesika caring on her own for the family's five children. Winkelman left school at age 17 after a disagreement with a geography teacher and worked for some years as a mechanic in a nearby garage, before becoming a car salesman.
Entry into politics
A co-worker introduced Winkelman to politics during the height of Abram Zymeker's liberal reforms in the late 1980s, which Winkelman was 'unequivocally opposed to'. Winkelman joined the small People's Freedom Party in 1989, although shifted his membership to the National Party in 1993 to be 'closer to where the decisions are actually being made'. He was first elected as a city councillor in Heersduik in 1994, being selected to run as a province-wide candidate for Helland for the Nationals in the 1996 general election. At the 2002 general election, Winkelman was selected in fourth place for the National Party in Helland. As he judged it inconceivable that he would end up being elected, Winkelman ran for the constituency of Wouterwerk-Laargen, where he was then living, on a platform of transcending the traditional Helish autonomy-centralisation line which divides the province's parties. Winkelman improbably won the seat with a swing of 6% in his favour despite the party's worst-ever nationwide results. This gained him media attention and acknowledgement within the party.
Winkleman became one of a growing group of moderate, mostly ex-Northern Nationals who helped to soften the party's image away from association with the South Vyvlander dictatorship and Nationalist Movement from which the party originated in order to prevent the party from dying out as a political force. However, he remained on good terms with many more traditional Nationals such as then-leader Gregor Stīnr, who endorsed Winkelman's leadership bid upon his resignation in 2004, giving him the vital boost needed to win. His leadership campaign revolved promises that he would increase the party's popularity by modernisation of policies and disassociation with the South, and thus "ensure the right is great again."
Party leadership
The first major test of Winkelman's leadership came the next year in the 2005 general election. Winkelman played on high levels of dissatisfaction with the Conservative Party, claiming it had 'sold out'. The party reversed its consistent declining trend for the first time since reunification, gaining 22 seats for a total of 61. Winkelman's National Party were widely hailed as one of the two main victors of the election, along with Minke Selengborg's Socialist Party, who ended up as the senior coalition partner after 2005.
The Nationals failed to make any gains at the 2009 general election, although Winkelman's leadership was not called into question due to his previous strong performances. Early in 2010, Winkelman told heckler Ivor Undithulu, a Vyvlander of Maganese descent, to "get on a plane back to your own country and leave us Vyvlanders in peace", earning him condemnation in the media. However, following financial instability from 2011 to 2012, Winkelman's popularity rose, and the National Party was able to gain 30 seats to make 82 in the 2013 election, the party's largest total since 1994.
Winkelman declared his candidacy for the 2014 presidential election in February of that year, with the National Party's official endorsement. He was placed fifth in the election, with a much lower vote share than in the general election of 2013. Winkelman's poor performance can partly be explained by the presence of another National Party candidate, Ans Eerman, on the ballot paper as a protest at Winkelman's moderate stances. In addition, Winkelma's poor result could also be caused by a strong campaign by the Vyvlander Front's Anton Eskmanteloim and a decline in National Party support following the recent economic recovery.
Political views
Winkelman is staunchly on the conservative right of the political spectrum, being most often branded as a right-wing populist. He has on numerous occasions spoken out against immigration and liberal laws on criminal justice, homosexuality and civil rights, and is in favour of a 'traditional' Vyvlander culture and life.
Winkelman polarises Vyvlander opinion, describing himself as a 'love-or-hate politician'. In a poll prior to the 2013 general election, he was the second-most liked - but also the most-disliked - of the five largest parties' leaders. On more than one occasion, he has been the subject of verbal and physical abuse in public, with one incident when he was slapped by a protestor at a party rally in Bengsdok gaining attention due to its live broadcast on VBC. According to Winkelman, these attacks shows "total disregard for the oppressed conservatives' right to express our opinions."
Personal life
Winkelman lives both in his family constituency home in Laargen and in a townhouse in Lorence. His wife, Alinda Frops, is a former television presenter for VNB, and is now a media consultant. He has three young children and two dogs.
Image
Winkelman is well-known for his outlandish dress sense (frequently wearing sportswear while campaigning) and peroxide-blond hair. According to de Kronikel, the reason for this image is that he was advised to 'sharpen up' his image in 2000 if he wanted any chance of standing out within his party.