The Most Famous

POLITICIANS from Aruba

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This page contains a list of the greatest Aruban Politicians. The pantheon dataset contains 19,576 Politicians, 4 of which were born in Aruba. This makes Aruba the birth place of the 195th most number of Politicians behind Botswana, and Faroe Islands.

Top 4

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Aruban Politicians of all time. This list of famous Aruban Politicians is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.

Photo of Frits Goedgedrag

1. Frits Goedgedrag (b. 1951)

With an HPI of 48.88, Frits Goedgedrag is the most famous Aruban Politician.  His biography has been translated into 15 different languages on wikipedia.

Frits Martinus de los Santos Goedgedrag (born 1 November 1951 in Aruba) is a Dutch Antillean politician who was the first governor of Curaçao following the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles. During his tenure, he oversaw the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles and Curaçao becoming a constituent country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

Photo of Fredis Refunjol

2. Fredis Refunjol (b. 1950)

With an HPI of 46.10, Fredis Refunjol is the 2nd most famous Aruban Politician.  His biography has been translated into 15 different languages.

Fredis Jose Refunjol (born 19 December 1950) is a retired Aruban politician who served as the third governor of Aruba from 2004 to 2016. Originally a teacher, he has served as a government official for the past twenty years, starting as a member of the Parliament of Aruba.

Photo of Nelson Oduber

3. Nelson Oduber (b. 1947)

With an HPI of 46.06, Nelson Oduber is the 3rd most famous Aruban Politician.  His biography has been translated into 15 different languages.

Nelson Orlando Oduber (born 7 February 1947) is a retired Aruban politician who served as the 2nd Prime Minister of Aruba. Following his defeat in the 2009 Aruban general election, Oduber retired from politics.

Photo of Mike Eman

4. Mike Eman (b. 1961)

With an HPI of 42.98, Mike Eman is the 4th most famous Aruban Politician.  His biography has been translated into 16 different languages.

Michiel Godfried "Mike" Eman (born 1 September 1961) is an Aruban politician who served as the 3rd Prime Minister of Aruba from 2009 to 2017. His political career began in 2001, but Eman has been involved in politics in one way or another since his childhood. His grandfather, father and brother were all prominent politicians in their lifetimes, with Henny Eman having preceded him in office (twice) as Prime Minister, including as the first to hold the office after Aruba's status aparte in 1986. Eman is a graduate of the University of the Netherlands Antilles (UNA) earning his law degree in 1992 with a thesis entitled "The Position of the Institution of the Public Prosecutor vis à vis the Minister of Justice in a Small Scale Community." In 1996 he earned a degree in Civil Notary Law from the same university. From 1992 to 2001, Eman worked as a deputy civil law notary and co-founded several private commercial ventures and foundations for political studies. He began his formal political career in September 2001 when he appeared 3rd on the list of the AVP. The 2001 elections did not go in favor of the AVP causing the party to lose 4 seats in the parliament. This led to the decision of the AVP leader, Tico Croes, to relinquish position. The leadership was handed over to the former minister of Justice, Pedro E. (Eddy) Croes. Mike Eman became the party's VP and the minority whip leader in parliament. subsequently Eman was elected party leader in 2003. After the 2009 elections, the AVP regained 2 seats, and Eman's part became thus the majority party in parliament. Eman first cabinet was sworn on October 30, 2009, following his party's decisive victory in the 2013 election; his second cabinet was sworn in on 30 October 2013. In 2017, he said at the contract signing of the Sunrise Solar Park, "Aruba has proven the world that, although we are limited in size, we can have big dreams and important goals. Maybe we inherited an arid soil, but we are blessed with an abundance of sun and wind to turn that into energy and well being for our society. We have translated those gifts into a vision to make our island totally sustainable by 2020." Following the 2017 general election Eman's party lost its majority in the Parliament of Aruba. Eman subsequently announced that he would resign as party leader and that he would not take a seat in the upcoming parliament.

People

Pantheon has 4 people classified as Aruban politicians born between 1947 and 1961. Of these 4, 4 (100.00%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living Aruban politicians include Frits Goedgedrag, Fredis Refunjol, and Nelson Oduber. As of April 2024, 4 new Aruban politicians have been added to Pantheon including Frits Goedgedrag, Fredis Refunjol, and Nelson Oduber.

Living Aruban Politicians

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Newly Added Aruban Politicians (2024)

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