Saturday Magazine

Jetten, 38, was born in the Dutch town of Veghel in the country’s south. He obtained a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in public administration at the Netherlands’ Radboud University. He first became interested in politics after a “Turkish primary school was set on fire in my hometown,” Jetten said in his profile for the Dutch House of Representatives.

The culprits “ended up being teammates from my football team,” and the “rest of the world cast my village as a hotbed for far-right youths,” Jetten’s profile said. To counter this characterization, Jetten “teamed up with a few peers to prove everyone wrong, organizing various campaigns and speaking before the municipal council.” Jetten “worked as a manager at the ProRail national track network before going into politics,” said The Guardian. He was first elected to the House in 2017 and has held several government positions, including minister for climate and energy policy and first deputy prime minister.