- Peter Lankhorst
Petrus Antonius (Peter) Lankhorst (
Zwolle ,1 january 1947 ) is a Dutch politician. Lankhorst was MP for both the progressive ChristianPolitical Party Radicals and theGreenLeft .Lankhorst was born in a Roman Catholic family. He attended a protestant-Christian special schools in
Meppel andDeventer , and the Roman Catholic Geert Groote College in Deventer. He started to attended gymnasium but later went to the HBS. He graduated in 1966. He continued to studypolitical science at theUniversity of Amsterdam and befriended his colleagueHans Janmaat . Lankhorst graduated in 1974 on a thesis on theThird Way .Lankhorst joined the
Political Party Radicals and entered theAmsterdam city council. He was originally candidate-alderman for education, butRoel van Duijn took this position for the PPR. Lankhorst left the council in 1980. A month later he became civil servant for the municipal department for Youth and Education. After the 1981 election Lankhorst became MP for the PPR. He was spokesperson on housing, education, transport and water management and youth welfare. He was one of the first MPs to be openlyhomosexual during his term in parliament.After the 1982 election his former friend Janmaat became MP for the far right Centre Party. Lankhorst tried to avoid Janmaat as far as possible. In 1989 Lankhorst initiated a law to oblige
high schools to have a statute which lays down the rights of students. In 1993 it was adopted. In 1991 the PPR merged with the communistCommunist Party of the Netherlands , the left-socialistPacifist Socialist Party and the progressive-ChristianEvangelical People's Party . Lankhorst continued his membership of the Tweede Kamer under the new formation. WhenRia Beckers left the parliament in 1993 in order to make room for a new political leader, which would lead the party in the 1994 election, Lankhorst took over the position of chair of the parliamentary party ad interim. He would not stand for re-election in the 1994 election.In 1994 Lankhorst became a Knight in the
Order of the Dutch Lion . After leaving parliament Lankhorst became an alderman in the submunicipalityBos en Lommer inAmsterdam . He left the position 1998 to become an independent advisor on youth policy.
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