Pieter Herman Omtzigt (born 8 January 1974) is an independent Dutch politician who has been a member of the
House of Representatives
House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...
since 2003 apart from a short interruption from 17 June to 26 October 2010.
In his political work, Omtzigt focuses on matters of
tax
A tax is a compulsory financial charge or some other type of levy imposed on a taxpayer (an individual or legal entity) by a governmental organization in order to fund government spending and various public expenditures (regional, local, or n ...
es and
pension
A pension (, from Latin ''pensiō'', "payment") is a fund into which a sum of money is added during an employee's employment years and from which payments are drawn to support the person's retirement from work in the form of periodic payments ...
s. He rose to prominence for his role in uncovering the
childcare benefits scandal.
Political career
House of Representatives
In parliament, Omtzigt currently serves on the Committees on European Affairs, Foreign Affairs, Housing and Kingdom Services, Social Affairs and Employment, Finance and Public Expenditure. From 2017, he served as the parliament's
rapporteur
A rapporteur is a person who is appointed by an organization to report on the proceedings of its meetings. The term is a French-derived word.
For example, Dick Marty was appointed ''rapporteur'' by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Euro ...
on
Brexit
Brexit (; a portmanteau of "British exit") was the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February 2020 CET).The UK also left the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or ...
.
From 2019, Omtzigt, together with Member of Parliament
Renske Leijten (
SP), stood up for affected parents in the
childcare benefits scandal
The Dutch childcare benefits scandal ( nl, kinderopvangtoeslagaffaire or , ) is a political scandal in the Netherlands concerning false allegations of fraud made by the Tax and Customs Administration while attempting to regulate the distributi ...
in which more than 20,000 families were wronged when applying for childcare allowance. In the end, civil servants and (former) ministers were heard by the parliamentary questioning committee on Childcare Allowance, which ultimately led to the fall of the
third Rutte cabinet
The third Rutte cabinet was the cabinet of the Netherlands from 26 October 2017 until 10 January 2022 (since 15 January 2021 demissionary). It was formed by a coalition government of the political parties People's Party for Freedom and Democracy ...
in January 2021.
In July 2020, Omtzigt was defeated by
Deputy Prime Minister
A deputy prime minister or vice prime minister is, in some countries, a government minister who can take the position of acting prime minister when the prime minister is temporarily absent. The position is often likened to that of a vice president, ...
Hugo de Jonge
Hugo Mattheüs de Jonge (; born 26 September 1977) is a Dutch politician serving as Minister of Housing and Spatial Planning since 2022 in the Fourth Rutte cabinet. A member of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA), he was elected to its leader ...
in a vote for the position of
leader of the Christian Democratic Appeal
The Leader of the Christian Democratic Appeal is the most senior politician within the Christian Democratic Appeal ( nl, Christen-Democratisch Appèl, CDA) in the Netherlands.The current leader has been Wopke Hoekstra since 10 December 2020.
H ...
. Omtzigt was re-elected in the
2021 general election, winning 342,472 preference votes, more than any other non-party leader. Following the election, Omtzigt took time off, after complaining of exhaustion. Despite his leave, he decided to attend his installation on 31 March 2021.
On 25 March 2021, confidential notes from the
government formation Government formation is the process in a parliamentary system of selecting a prime minister and cabinet members. If no party controls a majority of seats, it can also involve deciding which parties will be part of a coalition government. It usuall ...
were revealed to include, among other things, "position Omtzigt, function elsewhere" ( nl, "positie Omtzigt, functie elders"). This prompted a heated debate in parliament and an impasse in the government formation. Amid the continuous news, Omtzigt took a formal leave of absence of four months starting on 25 May. He was temporarily replaced as a member of parliament by
Henri Bontenbal
Henri Bontenbal (; born 10 November 1982) is a Dutch politician and energy consultant who has served in the House of Representatives (Netherlands), House of Representatives since 18 January 2022. He has been the leader of the Christian Democratic ...
.
On 10 June 2021 a 78-page memo by Omtzigt was leaked, addressed to the CDA's
Spies
Spies most commonly refers to people who engage in spying, espionage or clandestine operations.
Spies or The Spies may also refer to:
* Spies (surname), a German surname
* Spies (band), a jazz fusion band
* "Spies" (song), a song by Coldplay
* ...
-committee that analysed the results of the parliamentary elections of March 2021. Omtzigt lashed out hard at the CDA, group employees and CDA members of parliament who were not named and wrote that he was promised the leadership of the party if
Hugo de Jonge
Hugo Mattheüs de Jonge (; born 26 September 1977) is a Dutch politician serving as Minister of Housing and Spatial Planning since 2022 in the Fourth Rutte cabinet. A member of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA), he was elected to its leader ...
would withdraw as party leader. After De Jonge's departure, however, the party leadership was offered to
Wopke Hoekstra
Wopke Bastiaan Hoekstra (born 30 September 1975) is a Dutch politician who has served as second Deputy Prime Minister of the Netherlands and Minister of Foreign Affairs in the fourth Rutte cabinet since 10 January 2022. He has also been Leader o ...
. According to Omtzigt, that was completely beyond his control. According to Omtzigt, political party members and members of the House of Representatives have said about him that he is a "psychopath, sick man, rabid dog, jerk, disturbed" and "unstable". Some of those claims were added to the memo by Omtzigt in a WhatsApp screenshot. Two days later, Omtzigt announced that he had left the CDA, and that he would continue as an independent member of parliament after his leave of absence.
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
In addition to his role in parliament, Omtzigt has been serving as member of the Dutch delegation to the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) is the parliamentary arm of the Council of Europe, a 46-nation international organisation dedicated to upholding human rights, democracy and the rule of law.
The Assembly is made up o ...
(PACE) since 2004. He is currently a member of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights; the Committee on the Honouring of Obligations and Commitments by
Member States of the Council of Europe
The Council of Europe was founded on 5 May 1949 by ten western and northern European states, with Greece joining three months later, and Iceland, Turkey and West Germany joining the next year. It now has 46 member states, with Montenegro being t ...
(Monitoring Committee); the Sub-Committee on Human Rights; the Sub-Committee on the implementation of judgments of the
European Court of Human Rights
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR or ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights. The court hears applications alleging that a ...
; and the Sub-Committee on the Rights of Minorities.
In his capacity at the Parliamentary Assembly, Omtzigt has served as the Assembly's
rapporteur
A rapporteur is a person who is appointed by an organization to report on the proceedings of its meetings. The term is a French-derived word.
For example, Dick Marty was appointed ''rapporteur'' by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Euro ...
on
mass surveillance
Mass surveillance is the intricate surveillance of an entire or a substantial fraction of a population in order to monitor that group of citizens. The surveillance is often carried out by local and federal governments or governmental organizati ...
since 2014. He has also been the Parliamentary Assembly’s General Rapporteur on the protection of
whistleblower
A whistleblower (also written as whistle-blower or whistle blower) is a person, often an employee, who reveals information about activity within a private or public organization that is deemed illegal, immoral, illicit, unsafe or fraudulent. Whi ...
s since 2021.
Omtzigt has also served as rapporteur on the case of the car bombing of journalist
Daphne Caruana Galizia
Daphne Anne Caruana Galizia (; 26 August 1964 – 16 October 2017) was a Maltese writer, journalist, blogger and anti-corruption activist, who reported on political events in Malta. In particular, she focused on investigative journalism, repor ...
(2018), justice for the victims of
ISIL
An Islamic state is a state that has a form of government based on Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a translation of the Arabic term ...
(2019); and on
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...
(2019). Between 2016 and 2017, he prepared the Assembly's proposal on an Investment Court System (ICS) for arbitrating in commercial disputes between states and foreign investors.
Political positions
Omtzigt was seen as representative of the CDA's
eurosceptic
Euroscepticism, also spelled as Euroskepticism or EU-scepticism, is a political position involving criticism of the European Union (EU) and European integration. It ranges from those who oppose some EU institutions and policies, and seek reform ...
wing. He has been critical of
European Central Bank
The European Central Bank (ECB) is the prime component of the monetary Eurosystem and the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) as well as one of seven institutions of the European Union. It is one of the world's Big Four (banking)#Intern ...
policies and, in 2020, pushed his party to support the idea of the Netherlands opting-out of unwanted EU programs.
Controversy
In 2017, media in the Netherlands described how
fake news
Fake news is false or misleading information presented as news. Fake news often has the aim of damaging the reputation of a person or entity, or making money through advertising revenue.Schlesinger, Robert (April 14, 2017)"Fake news in reality ...
reports of
Malaysia Airlines Flight 17
Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (MH17/MAS17) was a scheduled passenger flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur that was shot down by Russian forces on 17 July 2014, while flying over eastern Ukraine. All 283 passengers and 15 crew were killed. Cont ...
crash were propagated with the support of Omtzigt who introduced a Russian man as an "eyewitness" of the crash on a public expert debate in May 2017. The man, who was an asylum-seeker from Ukraine, never witnessed the crash, and his speech, texted to him by Omtzigt prior to the interview, repeated one of the Russia-promoted versions of Mig jets downing the Boeing. Shortly thereafter, journalists determined that R. had not been at home on the night of the crash and he had already been interviewed by officials who had discounted him as a witness.
He acknowledged via
Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
that he had acted carelessly and a few days later resigned from the spokesperson for the MH17 file.
References
External links
Parlement.com biography
Pieter Omtzigtat the website of the House of Representatives
Pieter Omtzigt(in Dutch) at the website of the Christian Democratic Appeal
*
pieteromtzigt.nl(in Dutch) on his website presenting himself as independent politician.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Omtzigt, Pieter
1974 births
Living people
20th-century Dutch economists
21st-century Dutch economists
21st-century Dutch politicians
Alumni of the University of Exeter
Christian Democratic Appeal politicians
Dutch eurosceptics
Dutch statisticians
Econometricians
Independent politicians in the Netherlands
European University Institute alumni
Members of the House of Representatives (Netherlands)
People from Enschede
Politicians from The Hague
University of Amsterdam alumni