Lodewijk Asscher
An Amsterdam alderman who unexpectedly wore the mayor's chain for four months.
Lodewijk Asscher was born in Amsterdam on 27 September 1974. He worked as a researcher and lecturer at the Institute for Information Law at the University of Amsterdam and earned his law doctorate in 2002 with a thesis on fundamental communication rights, such as freedom of expression. That same year he joined the Amsterdam city council, leading the Labour (PvdA) group there from 2004 to 2006.
In April 2006 he became an alderman, a member of the city's executive, responsible for economic affairs, finance and the airport. He was seen as one of the city's most prominent young politicians.
Mayor overnight
In March 2010 Mayor Job Cohen suddenly left for The Hague to lead the Labour Party into a general election, leaving Amsterdam without a mayor. On 23 March 2010 Asscher, aged 35, became acting mayor. The temporary appointment was controversial, especially with the local D66 party.
An acting mayor keeps the city running until a permanent successor is appointed, and in this case that took just over three months. On 7 July 2010 Eberhard van der Laan was sworn in and Asscher went back to being an alderman, now for finance, youth, education and Project 1012, the plan to revamp the area around the Red Light District. The trade magazine Binnenlands Bestuur named him Best Administrator of 2010, praising his open communication and tough line on truancy.
National politics
In November 2012 Asscher moved to The Hague as Minister of Social Affairs and Employment and Deputy Prime Minister in the second Rutte cabinet, serving until October 2017. In December 2016 he beat Diederik Samsom to become Labour Party leader and led the party in the 2017 general election.
In January 2021 he stepped down as the party's lead candidate. This followed criticism from a parliamentary inquiry into the childcare benefits scandal about how he, as minister, had handled warnings of abuses; he had apologised earlier. He later worked as an adviser, helped broker Amsterdam's coalition talks in 2022 and in 2025 became chair of the board of the FNV trade union federation. Asscher is married with three sons; the conductor Hans Vonk was his uncle.
- 01Asscher was acting mayor from 23 March to 7 July 2010.
- 02He was 35 when he took over the mayor's duties.
- 03A Dutch public administration magazine named him Best Administrator of 2010.
- 04As alderman he was in charge of Project 1012, the revamp of the Red Light District area.
- 05He later became Deputy Prime Minister of the Netherlands.