Ardin:Featured Article/October 2020

Art van de Lay (fully, Arthur Wilhelmus Frederik van de Lay) born 19 September 1960, is a Lindian politician of the Union of Democrats. He is currently the leader of the VUSL in the Vestean Parliament and was president of the Vestean Union between 2004 and 2015. Before entering politics he worked as an urban planner. In the 1990's he became a member of the Artwingen city council and served as an alderman. Right after being elected to the States General he became minister for spatial planning and infrastructure until his resignation in 2004, when he was elected as President of the Vestean Union.

Van de Lay studied to become an architect at the Ultingen University of Technology. In 1984 he graduated with a master’s degree specialising in urban planning. Instead of pursuing a PhD, as he had initially planned, he enrolled in both the bachelor’s and master’s programmes for at Artwingen University. During the early 1990's he worked at the ministry for spatial planning and infrastructure as an urban planner. It was around this time that he became politically active, citing a lack of vision within politics as the reason. Next to his full-time job, he was a member of the Artwingen city council, where he resided at the time. In 1996 he was appointed to the position of alderman for mobility, housing and urban planning in the city. At that point he left his post at the ministry. (Full article...)