Sytze Faber

Sytze Faber was born on 22 January 1937 in Schettens, in the Frisian municipality of Wûnseradiel, and grew up in a Frisian Reformed (gereformeerd) family. As a child he moved with his family to the Wieringermeer polder in North Holland, where his father became a farmer.

He studied political science at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and worked for a time as an assistant in its public administration department. In 1974 he obtained his doctorate in the social sciences with the thesis Burgemeester en democratie, a study of mayors and democracy in Friesland.

Before completing his doctorate he joined the Fryske Akademy in Leeuwarden, where he was a senior researcher in public administration until 1977. Living in Hurdegaryp, he served on the municipal council of Tietjerksteradeel from 1974 to 1978. The Friesch Dagblad editor Hendrik Algra asked him to write a weekly column, and he went on to share the paper's editorship in chief with the minister Ype Schaaf.

In 1977 he was elected to the House of Representatives for the Anti-Revolutionary Party, which merged into the CDA in 1980. He stood on the party's left wing, objected strongly to the coalition with the VVD in the first Van Agt cabinet, took a significant part in the debates on the revision of the constitution and in 1979 was one of ten CDA members who opposed the stationing of American cruise missiles. Because he often voted differently from his party he became known as a dissident. After Ruud Lubbers became prime minister in 1982 the party pressed harder for unity, and Faber left parliament in January 1985.

On 15 January 1985 he became mayor of Hoogeveen. He set out to give the town the standing of a regional city between Zwolle and Emmen, campaigned successfully for the doubling of the N37, later the A37 motorway, and played an important part in founding the Hoogeveen international chess tournament, first held in 1997. NRC recalled that he once toured the town centre in a wheelchair to see the obstacles users faced. In 1988 he and the mayor of Smallingerland, Bert Smallenbroek, were involved in a confrontation with young people after a night out in Zwolle. The interior minister found that neither had committed an offence but reprimanded both; Smallenbroek resigned, while Faber kept the confidence of his council and remained mayor until 1 September 1998.

After Hoogeveen he returned to the Friesch Dagblad as a weekly political columnist, writing until 2025. He chaired the broadcaster IKON from 1996 to 2000 and the Royal Dutch Chess Federation from 2006 to 2007, was vice chairman of the Media Council and a member of the Council for Public Administration. In 2007 he published De wet van de koestal, an account of the Christian Union parliamentary group during the formation of the fourth Balkenende cabinet.

Faber described himself as an independent thinker who would not bind himself in advance to the view of a group. He said that his stance on the cruise missiles brought uncomfortable phone calls to his home and pressure on him personally, which stopped after Hendrik Algra intervened. In 2017 he warned against the dangers of right wing populism.

In Leeuwarden he chaired the Wopke Eekhoff Foundation, the supervisory board of the youth care organisation Tjallingahiem and an ecumenical diaconal foundation, and for a time was a board member and spokesman of the Leeuwarden food bank.

Sytze Faber died in Leeuwarden on Thursday 22 October 2026, aged 89. His family announced his death in a notice in NRC on Saturday 24 October, and it was reported by NOS, Omrop Fryslan, RTV Drenthe and NRC. The cause of death was not made public.

Faber is remembered as one of the CDA's most independent voices in the House of Representatives during the cruise missile debates, as a mayor who sought to make Hoogeveen a regional centre, and as a long serving Frisian columnist and administrator. His doctoral study of the office of mayor in Friesland remained one of the standard works on local government in the province.