Alexander Pechtold

Alexander Pechtold (born 16 December 1965) is a Dutch politician of the Democrats 66 (D66) party and art historian. Pechtold an art historian by training, worked for Van Stockum's Auctions as a auctioneer from 1992 until 1997. He was elected Chairman of the D66 on 16 November 2002, and was appointed Mayor of Wageningen on 1 October 2003. In 2005 he was asked to become Minister for Government Reform and Kingdom Relations in the Second Balkenende cabinet under Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende, following the resignation of Thom de Graaf. Pechtold accepted the position, and resigned as Chairman and Mayor the same day that he took office as Minister on 31 March 2005. The D66 retracted its support for the Balkenende cabinet on 29 June 2006, and Pechtold resigned as Minister for Government Reform and Kingdom Relations on 3 July 2006. He was elected the Leader of the D66 on 24 June 2006, after the party's leadership election of 2006. In the general election of 2006 Pechtold became lijsttrekker (top candidate); the D66 lost three seats, and became an opposition party. In the election of 2010, when Pechtold was again lijsttrekker, the D66 gained seven seats, for a total of ten, but remained an opposition party. In the following Dutch general election of 2012, with Pechtold still lijsttrekker, the D66 gained another two seats but remained an opposition party, while in the Dutch general election of 2017 gained a further seven seats, for a total of nineteen.