On 14 March 2002 she was elected as a member of the municipal council in her hometown of Zaltbommel for the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy. She left the municipal council on 1 January 2003 when she became a candidate for the House of Representatives during the Dutch general election of 2003. On 30 January 2003 she became Member of the House of Representatives and was re-elected each time until the 2017 elections. Her main focus was on matters of mass media and medical ethics. On 20 September 2012 she announced her candidacy to succeed Gerdi Verbeet as Speaker of the House of Representatives. Verbeet retired after six-years and this left the high office open. Van Miltenburg defeated fellow former journalist Ton Elias in an internal election in the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy.[1] Van Miltenburg went on to win the presidency after defeating her two rival candidates, Khadija Arib of the Labour Party and Gerard Schouw of the Democrats 66 in the main election and was installed as president the same day on 25 September 2012.[2][3] Van Miltenburg resigned as Speaker of the House on 12 December 2015 when it became clear she had suppressed two letters of a whistleblower from the justice ministry who had the right details on the Teeven-deal, by putting the letters through the shredder..[4] Her term as member of the House ended on 23 March 2017.[5]
Personal
Anouchka van Miltenburg has been married to Chris Halkes since 1991 and has three children, she lives in Zaltbommel. She is a member of the Catholic Church.[6] In the 1990s Van Miltenburg was the lead singer of a rock band called Blow Smoke.[7]
Underline signifies the parliamentary leader (first mentioned) and the Speaker Angle brackets signify a replacement member or a member who prematurely left this House of Representatives