Mirjam Bikker

Bikker grew up in Moordrecht and Nunspeet; she attended her secondary education in Elburg. She studied law at Utrecht University and specialised in constitutional and administrative law. As a student she was also chairwoman of Sola Scriptura, a local student society belonging to the Reformed CSFR.

From 2006 to 2013, she was a member of the municipal council of the city of Utrecht, as well as also group chairwoman. In 2007, she received national attention by protesting against a woman in a golden bikini on a big poster in the centre of Utrecht.^[1] From 2008 to 2010 and again from 2013 to 2015, she was a policy assistant to the Christian Union group in the House of Representatives. In 2015, she joined the Senate. In 2019, she became group chairwoman, succeeding Roel Kuiper.

In 2021, she was elected to the House of Representatives. She was mentioned as a potential minister in the formation phase of the Fourth Rutte cabinet.^[2] On 17 January 2023 Bikker became the leader of the Christian Union,^[3] becoming the first female leader of the party.^[4] She was re-elected to the House in November 2023. Next to her role as parliamentary leader, Bikker served as her party's spokesperson for health, welfare, sport, justice, security, the interior, Dutch royal family, and gas extraction in Groningen.^[5]

A motion by Bikker was passed in early 2024 compelling Minister Franc Weerwind to make a spending cap on online gambling more stringent, after the practice was legalized in 2021.^[6] Along with Michiel van Nispen (SP), she announced a bill with several measures to tackle online gambling issues, including a ban on advertisements and credit card payments and increased contributions from operators toward addiction prevention. Her party favored prohibiting online gambling, but such a proposal was unlikely to pass the House.^[7] Bikker also spoke out against antisemitism during the Gaza war. At Bikker's initiative, a statement was signed by most political parties speaking out against it, and a session about the topic was held at the prime minister's official residence amongst industry leaders.^[8] Along with Frans Timmermans of GroenLinks–PvdA, she carried forward a bill to impose harsher penalties in cases of hate crimes, including acts of violence or insults motivated by discrimination. It was passed by an overwhelming majority of the House in December 2024.^[9][10]

When the right-wing Schoof cabinet presented its 2025 budget that included €2 billion in education cuts, Bikker joined the self-named "unholy alliance" with centrist and conservative opposition parties. To gain support in the Senate, the governing coalition agreed in December 2024 to reverse €750 million of the cuts. Bikker did not embrace the revised budget, declaring that they had made "a bad budget less bad".^[11][12]

Bikker is in favor of stricter regulations on social media, and she wants to ban online gambling in order to improve mental health among young people. She supports the civilian service that was introduced in 2020.^[13]

Mirjam Bikker is married, has three children and lives in Gouda.^[14] She is a member of the Protestant Church in the Netherlands (PKN).^[15]