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Emma Eleonora (Esmé) Wiegman-van Meppelen Scheppink (born 24 July 1975 in Haarlem) is a former Dutch politician. As a member of the ChristianUnion (ChristenUnie) she was an MP from 1 March 2007 to 19 September 2012. She focused on matters of the European Union, public health, welfare, sports, spatial planning and natural environment.

Biography

Education and activities

Wiegman studied Dutch language and Dutch literature with a specialization in modern Dutch and Dutch East Indies literature at Leiden University. After finishing her study she worked as an editor for publishers and a magazine.

Wiegman became an active member of the youth organisation of the Reformatory Political Federation (RPF) in 1989, later she became a board member of the RPF itself. After the RPF merged into the ChristianUnion in 2002, Wiegman was elected a local representative in the council of her hometown Zwolle.

Political career

In the 2007 national elections she was elected first runner-up for the lower house of Netherlands' Parliament. After the ChristianUnion became a participant in the newly formed fourth Balkenende cabinet - and two representatives taking positions in that cabinet - Wiegman became a member of Parliament in March 2007. Her term ended in September 2012.

After politics

She found a new position with the National General Practitioners Association [nl] (LHV) as regional manager for the North (Friesland, Groningen, Drenthe, Zwolle/Flevoland). On February 1, 2014, she became director of the Dutch Patients Association [nl].^[1] She left that position on March 1, 2018, to become the director of the Cooperative Palliative Care Netherlands.^[2]

Personal life

Esmé Wiegman is married, mother of three and a member of the Protestant Church in the Netherlands.

References

• (in Dutch) Parlement.com biography