Sylvana Simons

TV and radio presenter and politician Sylvana Simons was born in Surinam and grew up in the Netherlands. When she joined a political party to fight racism, discrimination and xenophobia, she got a shocking amount of hateful, racist and sexist reactions. In 2017 she started her own political party, Bij1, to fight for equality and inclusivity for everyone: Radical Equality. The foundation of this political party is Article 1 of the constitution: "Everybody who is in the Netherlands, will be treated equally in equal circumstances. Discrimination because of religion, convictions, political belief, race, gender or any other ground, is not tolerable."  The political party Bij1 participated in the municipal elections in Amsterdam in 2018 and claimed a seat in the city council. Sylvana Simons was the first black woman to start a political party in Europe. Watch a short video of the event.