Tiny Kox

Martinus Josephus Maria "Tiny" Kox (Dutch: [ˈtini ˈkɔks]; born 6 May 1953) is a Dutch politician who served as President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe from 2022 until 2024. As a member of the Socialist Party (SP), he became a senator on 10 June 2003. He stepped down in February 2024, by which time he had become the longest-serving incumbent member of the Senate.

On 24 January 2022, he was elected the President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), initially for a one-year term. Prior to this, he was for several years the President of the Unified European Left Group in the Assembly, where he has been a member since 2003.

Early career

In 1973 Kox finished an economical-judicial study programme at the School for Higher Economics & Administrative Sciences in Eindhoven. After which, in 1975, he got his bachelor of law-degree at Tilburg University, which ended his law study. From 1975 to 1982 he worked at the Tilburg law centre, at which point in time he was already an active member of the SP.

Political career

Party activities

In 1981 he became editor-in-chief of Tribune, SP's member party magazine, while in the same year he was also appointed to the executive committee of the party. In 1982, he was elected to the Tilburg municipal council, where he served as the head of the local SP-group until 1999.

In 1993, he became the General Secretary of the SP, the highest position in the executive branch of the party. Together with Jan Marijnissen, Kox lead the party. With Marijnissen focusing on the 1994 Dutch general election, and Kox focusing on daily party-business, the duo transformed the party from a minor left-wing political group to a modern socialist party.