Former Dutch minister, Ella Vogelaar commits suicide

ella vogelaar

Former housing minister Ella Vogelaar dies after struggling with depression. Image via En24 News

Former housing minister Ella Vogelaar dies after struggling with depression. Image via En24 News

The family of former Dutch Minister Ella Vogelaar on Wednesday reported that she committed suicide at the age of 69.

Vogelaar, who was deputy leader of the FNV union federation before becoming a minister, suffered from depression and ended her own life, her partner Onno Bosma told the newsmen.

The family also said in a statement that Vogelaar has been suffering from depression for quite some time and has finally put an end to her life.

Vogelaar was chair of Oxfam Novib, the largest Dutch international development organisation from 2004 to 2007.

From February 2007 until 2008, she was the minister of housing, neighborhoods, and integration in the fourth cabinet of Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende on behalf of the Labor Party PvdA. She lost the confidence of the PvdA board and had to leave after some months.

During her short time in office, Vogelaar introduced a list of forty disadvantaged neighborhoods in large cities and helped them receive extra investments.

Those neighborhoods were soon given the name “Vogelaar neighborhoods.’’

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