Dutch politician
Paul Bernard Cliteur (born 6 September 1955) is a Dutch professor of jurisprudence at Leiden University, as well as a politician, philosopher, writer, publicist and columnist. He is known for his conservative perspective, his atheism, his republicanism, and his dislike of Islam. He is a member of De Vrije Gedachte.[1] Since 2015, Cliteur is a member of the Dutch political party Forum voor Democratie, where he is chairman of the advisory board and the party's official think tank. In 2019 he was elected to be parliamentary group leader for Forum voor Democratie in the Dutch Senate.[2]
Cliteur has also been on the board of several organisations, including supervisor of the Telders Foundation (think tank of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy), and from 1993 until 1995 chair of the Humanist League (Humanistisch Verbond).[3]
Lawyer and philosopher
Cliteur studied law and philosophy, and graduated on 22 March 1989 with his dissertation Conservatisme en cultuurrecht ("Conservatism and cultural law", published in 2005 under the title Natuurrecht, Cultuurrecht, Conservatisme, "Natural law, Cultural law, Conservatism"). From 1995 until 2002, he was Professor of Philosophy at Delft University. He is Professor of Jurisprudence at Leiden University, where he delivered his maiden speech on 28 May 2004 on "The neutral state, particular education and multiculturalism". His activities mainly include law, cultural history, philosophy and ethics.
Columnist and publicist
Cliteur is mainly known for his opining works, in which he expresses his political views. He served as a columnist for, amongst others, Trouw, and had a spoken column in the TV show Buitenhof. In these, he first and foremost expresses his liberal opinions, his own vision of multiculturism, and also advocates for animal rights.
In March 2004, Cliteur told Het Parool in an interview that he felt he was being limited in freely expressing his opinions on Islam after others branded him a "racist" and "stigmatiser". This was partly due to an AIVD report, which argued criticism of Islam is counterproductive for the social integration of Muslims. Cliteur felt it necessary to moderate the tone of his spoken columns for Buitenhof. After being criticised for taking this position, he decided to terminate his contributions to Buitenhof completely, because he regarded himself to be no longer credible.[4]
An overview of his philosophy is described in Dirk Verhofstadt in gesprek met Paul Cliteur. Een zoektocht naar harmonie (2012), an in-depth interview between Dirk Verhofstadt and Paul Cliteur on Enlightenment values such as the freedom of speech, separation of church and state, the right to self-determination and the equality of every human being.
Political career
Cliteur is regarded as one of the founding fathers of the right-wing party populist party Forum for Democracy, and he was a mentor for the party's leader, Thierry Baudet, whose doctoral dissertation he directed,[5] a dissertation seen as the ideological source for the "anti-immigration, anti-European Union party" Baudet founded later.[6] Cliteur has been connected to the party since 2015, and in 2019 was elected to the Dutch Senate.[5] In 2020, after the discovery of racist text messages circulating within party groups, he stood down as Senate group leader but remained a member of the FvD.[7]
