Product Code Database
Pieter Herman Omtzigt (; born 8 January 1974) is a Dutch former politician who served as a member of the House of Representatives between 2003 and 2025 apart from a short interruption between June and October 2010. He was a member of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA), but left in 2021 and continued as an independent. In August 2023, he founded a new party called New Social Contract, its name taken from his 2021 manifesto. Three months later, his party won 20 out of 150 seats in the 2023 Dutch general election. On 18 April 2025, he announced that he would leave politics due to his burnout.
In his political work, Omtzigt focused on matters of and . He rose to prominence for his role in bringing attention to the childcare benefits scandal.
From 1992 to 1996, Omtzigt studied at the University of Exeter (Devon, England), where he obtained his BA degree in Economics and Statistics with European Studies. In the meantime, he did a student exchange program at the LUISS University (Rome, Italy) from 1994 to 1995. During his studies, Omtzigt was also a board member of the youth department of the Dutch Christian trade union CNV between 1991 and 1993. He performed his doctoral research at the European University Institute (Florence, Italy), where he obtained a PhD in Economics in 2003, with the dissertation titled Essays in Cointegration Analysis. ECO Theses: Essays on Cointegration Analysis – research repository website Cadmus of the European University Institute Omtzigt was a researcher at the University of Insubria (Varese, Italy) from 2000 to 2002. From 2002 he was a post-doctoral researcher at the Quantitative Economics department of the University of Amsterdam. Biografie, education and career of Pieter Omtzigt – website of the House of Representatives
From 2019, Omtzigt, together with Member of Parliament Renske Leijten (SP), stood up for affected parents in the childcare benefits scandal 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 in January 2021.
In July 2020, Omtzigt was defeated by Deputy Prime Minister Hugo de Jonge in a vote for the position of leader of the Christian Democratic Appeal. 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.Mike Corder (1 April 2021), Dutch PM Rutte fights for his political life in tough debate Washington Post. Despite his leave, he decided to attend his installation on 31 March 2021.
On 25 March 2021, confidential notes from the government formation were revealed to include, among other things, "position Omtzigt, function elsewhere" (). 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.
On 20 August 2023, Omtzigt announced his participation in the early Dutch parliamentary elections scheduled for 22 November 2023, with the party New Social Contract (NSC). The party entered the House as the fourth-largest with twenty seats, and Omtzigt expressed his unwillingness to negotiate about forming a governing coalition with the right-wing populist Party for Freedom (PVV), the election winner, as he believed the party did not respect the rule of law. As part of the cabinet formation, Omtzigt entered talks under informateur Ronald Plasterk with the PVV, VVD, and BBB to address those concerns. He finally left open the possibility to enter into an extraparliamentary cabinet, but he stepped out of the negotiations in February 2024, citing disagreements about finances. Omtzigt rejoined talks under a new informateur, and a coalition agreement to form the Schoof cabinet was reached on 16 May 2024. In the House of Representatives, Omtzigt has served as parliamentary leader and as spokesperson for European affairs, general affairs, the Dutch royal house, and labor migration.
In September 2024, he took a step back from politics as he was experiencing symptoms of an occupational burnout, intending to stay away for a few weeks. His responsibilities as parliamentary leader were taken over by Nicolien van Vroonhoven, ahead of the yearly General Political Debate. De Telegraaf had reported weeks before that Omtzigt had cried and screamed during talks between coalition parties and the cabinet. During Omtzigt's absence, Van Vroonhoven negotiated a deal on asylum measures, and she averted a cabinet collapse following the resignation of State Secretary Nora Achahbar due to "polarizing interactions". Omtzigt started a phased return to the House in late November, and he would temporarily share the role of parliamentary leader with Van Vroonhoven. Omtzigt froze and walked out of a December 2024 interview with after being asked about his reported emotional behavior during formation talks, but returned shortly after to continue. He later clarified on social media that he was still limited in his capacity to handle pressure as part of his recovery.
In his capacity at the Parliamentary Assembly, Omtzigt has served as the Assembly's rapporteur on mass surveillance since 2014. Call on UK to investigate spying on human rights groups by UK secret services Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, press release of 14 July 2015. He has also been the Parliamentary Assembly's General Rapporteur on the protection of since 2021. Pieter Omtzigt: new whistleblower protection law in Malta ‘not fit for purpose’ Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, press release of 20 December 2021.
Omtzigt has also served as rapporteur on the case of the car bombing of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia (2018), CPJ welcomes Council of Europe's appointment of Omtzigt as special rapporteur on Malta case Committee to Protect Journalists, press release of 23 April 2018. justice for the victims of ISIL (2019); Rapporteur calls for assurances that developments in Syria will not jeopardise justice for the victims of Daesh Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, press release of 11 October 2019. and on Poland (2019). Rapporteurs closely follow challenges to Polish Senate election result Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, press release of 24 October 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. Investment court system a ‘reasonable compromise’ for arbitrating disputes between states and foreign investors Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, press release of 27 January 2017.
In 2024, he called the ministerial responsibility that the Dutch cabinet has for acts by the Dutch royal family problematic. He suggested that either the responsibility should be curtailed or its family members should only perform ceremonial duties. Omtzigt cited the involvement of Princess Laurentien of the Netherlands in the aftermath of the childcare benefits scandal and the work of Queen Máxima of the Netherlands for the Secretary-General of the United Nations.
Omtzigt and his family live in Enschede.
| + ! scope="col" rowspan=2 | Year ! scope="col" rowspan=2 | Body ! scope="col" colspan=2 rowspan=2 | Party ! scope="col" rowspan=2 | ! scope="col" rowspan=2Votes ! scope="colgroup" colspan=2 | Result ! scope="col" rowspan=2 class="unsortable" | . |
|
|
