Boris Dittrich
| Boris Dittrich | |
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| Member of the House of Representatives (Netherlands) | |
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In office 17 May 1994 – 29 November 2006 |
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| Party and Parliamentary leader Democrats 66 | |
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In office 22 January 2003 – 3 February 2006 |
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| Preceded by | Thom de Graaf |
| Succeeded by | Lousewies van der Laan |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Boris Ottokar Dittrich 21 July 1955 Utrecht, Netherlands |
| Political party | Democrats 66 |
| Website | www.borisdittrich.nl |
Boris Ottokar Dittrich (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈboːrɪz ˈditrix]; born 21 July 1955 in Utrecht) is a human rights activist and a former Dutch politician and writer.
Dittrich's father came to the Netherlands as a political asylum seeker from Czechoslovakia in 1948, he became a professor in Eastern-European history at the University of Utrecht.
Boris Dittrich grew up in Utrecht and went to law school at Leiden University. He worked as a lawyer in Amsterdam from 1981 till 1989 and later as a judge in the district court of Alkmaar from 1989 till 1994. Dittrich is married to the Dutch / Israeli sculptor Jehoshua Rozenman.
In 1994 Dittrich became a member of parliament representing the social-liberal party D66.
Boris Dittrich rose to become party leader of D66 in 2003 after Thom de Graaf stepped down because of disappointing results in the 2003 general elections.
Dittrich negotiated the participation of D66 in the Dutch coalition government Balkenende II with the Christian-democratic CDA and the other liberal party VVD.
Dittrich decided not to become a minister but to stay party leader in parliament in order to monitor whether the new government would execute the coalition contract. The new government introduced major reforms to which the staggering Dutch economy responded positively.
Dittrich was strongly against Dutch military participation in the Afghan province of Uruzgan and he tried to persuade the Dutch government and parliament not to get involved in the war. However, when the Dutch cabinet (including his own D66 ministers) decided to follow the American lead under President Bush, backed by 75% of the Dutch parliament, he decided to take political responsibility and stepped down as leader of D66 on 3 February 2006. A few months later D66 withdrew its support from the government after 3 years because of a dispute with the Dutch minister Rita Verdonk (Minister of Foreign Affairs and Integration) about the way she handled the issue of the Dutch passport of Ayaan Hirsi Ali. D66 and the minister had had many clashes before because of her harsh policy towards asylum seekers and immigrants. This withdrawal caused the fall of the government and new elections were announced for November 2006.
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