Johan Lierten

Johan Lierten (born 10 December 1974) is a Brunanter politician and lawyer, who serves in the House of Representatives since 2013, with a brief discontinuation in early 2019. A member of the Brunant Conservatives, he was a member of the Brunanter People's Party from 2010-2019 and was deputy chairman of the party from 2012-2019. Prior to the 2019 general election, he joined the Brunant Conservatives.

Biography
Lierten grew up in Varsenare and studied law at the Grijzestad University. In his youth, he was a member of several conservative and Catholic student organisations and was an editor of the conservative student newspaper Veritas and the magazine of the university's law faculty, Tribune. After his studies, he became a lawyer and wrote for several legal magazines. In 1999, he joined law firm Claes Fowler as a specialist in contract law, but in 2005, Lierten founded is own firm based in Grijzestad's U-Stad.

From 2003-2005, he was a parliamentary assistant to Reinier Vervoort, who served in the House of Representatives for the Free Liberal Party. In 2005, when Vervoort became Minister of Transport and Communications, Lierten became his head of cabinet. In 2009, he became Vervoort's parliamentary assistant again.

In 2010, Lierten co-founded the Brunanter People's Party, a right-wing populist, eurosceptic and nationalist party. From 2012 on, he was deputy chairman of the BPP, succeeding Chris Linard. In 2013, Lierten was elected to the House of Representatives and became house leader for the BPP. He was re-elected at the 2017 election.

In early January 2019, Lierten resigned as deputy chairman and gave up his seat in the House. He was replaced in both functions by Mark Giannini. One week later, he joined the Brunant Conservatives, another conservative nationalist party, which opposed with the BPP on several political positions. He became a member of the House again following the 2019 election. His sudden and unannounced switch to the Conservatives was called "treacherous" by BPP founder and chairman Willem Gent. In December 2019, the BPP was eventually dissolved.