Born on November 8, 1985, Marcel van Hattem holds a BA in International Relations and a specialization in Law, Economics and Constitutional Democracy, both from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS). He obtained a Master's degree in Political Science from the University of Leiden, in Journalism, Media and Globalization from the Universities of Aarhus, Denmark, and Amsterdam, in the Netherlands, and is a graduate of the Political, Social and Business Leadership Program at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, United States.
He began his professional career as a newspaper delivery man and later became a reporter for the Jornal Dois Irmãos. He was a guest contributor to Revista Voto and wrote opinion articles and reports to different organizations of the Brazilian press, including Zero Hora, Jornal do Comércio and O Estado de S. Paulo. He worked in the international division of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, in The Hague and founded Argumento – a Consulting Firm for Leaders of Expression.
He was elected in 2004, at age 18, Council Member of the city of Dois Irmãos. He ran for State Representative and, in 2014, was the first alternate member of the Progressive Party (PP), serving from February 2015 to March 2018 as the youngest deputy in the Legislative Assembly of Rio Grande do Sul. He became famous for making speeches in the Gaucho Parliament in favor of the ideas of freedom and against statist and collectivist ideologies.
A selection of his most impactful pronouncements, commented, was published in his book “Somos Nós Com Uma Voz:do megafone à tribuna em defesa da Liberdade, do Estado de Direito e da Democracia” - “This is us: from the megaphone to the tribune in defense of Liberty, the Rule of Law and Democracy” -, released by LVM Editora. In March 2018, he joined the Partido Novo (a political party called “New”), a party for which he was elected the most voted federal deputy in Rio Grande do Sul, with 349,855 votes. Since then, its performance at the federal level has been guided by the fight against corruption, reduction of the State and greater freedom for Brazilians.
In the first year of his mandate, he served as the first leader of the NOVO party bench in the Chamber of Deputies and, in subsequent years, he served as the vice-leader of NOVO. His term was also marked by intense legislative action: extinction of the electoral fund, social security reform, support for the economic freedom law, defense of prison in second instance, support for tax reform, end of sucumbence fees for public lawyers, defense of the Code of the Entrepreneur, defense for the use of FGTS (Government Severance Indemnity Fund) in the purchase of a second property, double penalty for acts of corruption during the pandemic, end of parliamentary immunity in cases of arrest of congressmen who commit crimes against public administration, among others.