Frans Jozef van der Heijden

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Frans Jozef van der Heijden (20 March 1938 – 21 October 2016) was a Dutch politician and journalist from Rotterdam. He began his career as a journalist in 1960, working for De Stem and later for De Tijd-De Maasbode, and he was an editor for the weekly De Nederlandse Gemeente.

He entered politics with the Catholic People's Party (KVP) and was elected to the Rotterdam city council in 1970, where he served until 1978. He also served in the States of South Holland from 1978 to 1983 and was a member of the Rijnmondraad from 1978 to 1982. In the 1982 general election, he was elected to the Dutch House of Representatives for the CDA (the successor to the KVP) and served there until 1998, acting as a spokesperson on internal affairs, policing, elderly policy and mental health care.

After his time in the House, he returned to Rotterdam’s municipal council for two more terms, from 1998 to 2002 and from 2002 to 2006. Van der Heijden was knighted—first as a Knight of the Order of the Netherlands Lion in 1995 and then as a Knight of the Order of Orange-Nassau in 1998. He had been married since 1963.

In 2016, Van der Heijden and his wife died after both fell seriously ill. They ended their lives together, noting that there was not room in the public debate at the time to say goodbye together.