Cees van de Sanden

Cees A.H. van de Sanden (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈkeːs fɑn də ˈsɑndə(n)]; born 11 December 1962) is a Dutch attorney and politician for the conservative-liberal People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD).

Raised in Tilburg, North Brabant, Van de Sanden studied Dutch law at the city's university at age 39 after a non-legal corporate career. He specialized in administrative law and worked for several large law firms before setting up a solo practice. He later established partnerships with other attorneys. Van de Sanden is best known for his representation of the municipality of Bodegraven-Reeuwijk starting in 2021 after a conspiracy theory alleging Satanic ritual abuse caused disturbances. Its promotors were ordered to remove social media posts in an injunction suit and to pay damages, but another case to compel social media platform Twitter to remove more posts was lost by the municipality. One conspiracy theorist was prosecuted for death threats against Van de Sanden.

He ran for the Senate in May 2023 as the VVD's twelfth candidate but was not elected. He was appointed to the body in June 2023 to replace Paulien Geerdink for sixteen weeks during her sick leave, and he became a permanent senator in September 2024, replacing Caspar van den Berg.