Detlef Seif
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Detlef Seif (born 15 August 1962 in
Euskirchen Euskirchen (; Ripuarian language, Ripuarian: ''Öskerche'') is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, capital of the Euskirchen (district), district Euskirchen. While Euskirchen resembles a modern shopping town, it also has a history dating ba ...
) is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who has been a Member of the German
Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet (assembly), Diet") is the lower house of the Germany, German Federalism in Germany, federal parliament. It is the only constitutional body of the federation directly elected by the German people. The Bundestag wa ...
since 2009.


Early life and career

On a scholarship of the
Konrad Adenauer Foundation The Konrad Adenauer Foundation ('' German: Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung e.V.; Abbreviation: KAS'') is a German political party foundation associated with but independent of the centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU). The foundation's head ...
, Seif studied
law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...
at the
University of Bonn The University of Bonn, officially the Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn (), is a public research university in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded in its present form as the () on 18 October 1818 by Frederick Willi ...
from 1983 until 1989. During his studies, he worked for the
International Society for Human Rights The International Society for Human Rights (ISHR) is an international non-governmental, non-profit human rights organization with Participative Status with the Council of Europe and is a member of the Liaison Committee of the Non-Governmental O ...
. Since 1993, he has been practicing as a lawyer.


Political career

Seif joined the CDU in 1982 and held positions in local politics in
Weilerswist Weilerswist () is a municipality in the Euskirchen (district), district of Euskirchen in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located in the Eifel hills, approximately 10 kilometers north of Euskirchen, and 20 kilometers south-west o ...
from 1999 to 2009. Since 2009, Seif has been CDU party chairman in the district of Euskirchen. Seif has been a member of the German
Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet (assembly), Diet") is the lower house of the Germany, German Federalism in Germany, federal parliament. It is the only constitutional body of the federation directly elected by the German people. The Bundestag wa ...
since the 2009 federal elections. Since then, he has been a member of the Committee on European Affairs. In 2014 he became Deputy Spokesman for the committee. Seif's thematic areas of expertise in the committee are basic rights; EU citizenship; coordination between the judicature and police; border protection and counterterrorism; and asylum- and migration policy. Additionally, he is the CDU/CSU parliamentary group's rapporteur for Great Britain and Malta. Between 2009 and 2017, Seif was a member of the Committee on Legal Affairs, where he served as his parliamentary group'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 Eur ...
on legal professionals,
data privacy Information privacy is the relationship between the collection and dissemination of data, technology, the public expectation of privacy, contextual information norms, and the legal and political issues surrounding them. It is also known as data ...
and
labor law Labour laws (also spelled as labor laws), labour code or employment laws are those that mediate the relationship between workers, employing entities, trade unions, and the government. Collective labour law relates to the tripartite relationship be ...
. In 2018, he joined the Committee on Internal Affairs. The same year, Seif became a member of the first Investigative Committee of the 19th legislative period, which is investigating the failure of German security authorities to prevent Anis Amri's attack on a Berlin Christmas market in December 2016. In addition to his committee assignments, Seif is a member of the German-American Parliamentary Friendship Group and the German-British Parliamentary Friendship Group.


Political positions

European Affairs On 17 July 2015, Seif voted against his party's line and rejected the Merkel government’s proposal to negotiate a third bailout for
Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...
. As the EU deputy spokesperson for the CDU/CSU parliamentary group and rapporteur for affairs in Great Britain, Seif is outspoken on the topic of
Brexit Brexit (, a portmanteau of "Britain" and "Exit") was the Withdrawal from the European Union, withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU). Brexit officially took place at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February ...
. Before the
Brexit referendum The 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, commonly referred to as the EU referendum or the Brexit referendum, was a referendum that took place on 23 June 2016 in the United Kingdom (UK) and Gibraltar under the provisions o ...
in June 2016, Seif stated that if Prime Minister Cameron wanted Britain to stay in the EU, he would have to convince his fellow Britons of the advantages of EU membership. Seif compared Cameron to a “butterfly,” and declared that “Britain does not need a butterfly but a lion.” Regarding
Brexit negotiations Between 2017 and 2019, representatives of the United Kingdom and the European Union negotiated the terms of Brexit, the UK's planned withdrawal from membership of the EU. These negotiations arose following the decision of the Parliament of th ...
, Seif has taken a rigid stance and views the Brexit as a “catastrophe” that “damages economic development and the development of the EU.” Upon Prime Minister Theresa May's activation of
Article 50 Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU) provides for the possibility of an EU member state leaving the European Union "in accordance with its own constitutional requirements". Currently, the United Kingdom is the only state to hav ...
of the
Treaty of Lisbon The Treaty of Lisbon (initially known as the Reform Treaty) is a European agreement that amends the two treaties which form the constitutional basis of the European Union (EU). The Treaty of Lisbon, which was signed by all EU member states o ...
beginning formal Brexit proceedings and her remark that a failure to reach an agreement on Brexit would weaken UK-EU cooperation in the fight against crime and terrorism, Seif was one of many German members of parliament who did not take kindly to May's statement, deeming it “an extraordinarily primitive attempt at blackmailing us.” Seif blamed a leak to the ''
Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung The (; ''FAZ''; "Frankfurt General Newspaper") is a German newspaper founded in 1949. It is published daily in Frankfurt and is considered a newspaper of record for Germany. Its Sunday edition is the ''Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung'' ( ...
'' of an unflattering description of the first meeting between UK and EU negotiation teams in May 2017 on a “babbling idiot,” seeing both sides at fault for “the fact that the atmosphere is becoming poisoned.” Seif believes the Brexit will do significant damage to both Great Britain and the EU and is quoted as saying “a win-win settlement is excluded and it’s appropriate to speak about a lose-lose result.” Domestic Affairs Within his party, Seif belongs to the conservative wing. During the Böhmermann affair in 2016, Seif read the Böhmermann's "smear poem" in the German Bundestag to demonstrate that it is an insult of the Turkish president, which caused the outrage of other MPs. In June 2017, Seif voted against Germany's introduction of
same-sex marriage Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same legal Legal sex and gender, sex. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 38 countries, with a total population of 1.5 ...
. Following the party's result in the
2017 elections Africa *2017 Somali presidential election 8 February 2017 *2017 Gambian parliamentary election 6 April 2017 *2017 Algerian legislative election 4 May 2017 *2017 Lesotho general election 3 June 2017 *2017 Republic of the Congo parliamentary electi ...
, he held that voters had abandoned the CDU because, under Angela Merkel, it had moved too far to the left. Following Germany's September 2017 federal elections, Seif identified points of contention between the CDU, CSU, and SPD, telling Reuters that pensions, Europe and asylum and migration policy were all “areas where there are explosives built into the coalition agreement." In April 2018, Seif was the first member of the German Bundestag to delete his Facebook account as a result of the
Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal In the 2010s, personal data belonging to millions of Facebook users was collected by British consulting firm Cambridge Analytica for Campaign advertising, political advertising without informed consent. The data was collected through an app call ...
. He wrote an open letter to Facebook's Managing Director in Central Europe in which he stated he could not recommend Facebook to anyone, so long as Facebook continued to handle user data in a sloppy fashion. Ahead of the Christian Democrats’
leadership election A leadership election is a political contest held in various countries by which the members of a political party determine who will be the leader of their party. Generally, any political party can determine its own rules governing how and when a ...
, Seif publicly opposed in 2020
Friedrich Merz Joachim-Friedrich Martin Josef Merz (; ; born 11November 1955) is a German politician serving as Chancellor of Germany since 6 May 2025. He has also served as Leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) since January 2022, leading the CDU/CSU ...
's candidacy to succeed
Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (; Kramp; born 9 August 1962), sometimes referred to by her initials of AKK, is a retired German politician who served as Federal Ministry of Defence (Germany), Minister of Defence from 2019 to 2021 and as Leader of th ...
as the party's chair.AKK-Rückzug: Diese Nachfolger wünschen sich Christdemokraten aus Köln und der Region
''
Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger The ''Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger'' (KStA) is a German daily newspaper published in Cologne, and has the largest circulation in the Cologne–Bonn Metropolitan Region. ''Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger'' has a base of over 100 contributing editors and a wide ...
'', 10 February 2020.


Personal life

Seif is Protestant, married and has one daughter.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Seif, Detlef 1962 births Living people Members of the Bundestag for North Rhine-Westphalia People from Euskirchen Members of the Bundestag 2021–2025 Members of the Bundestag 2017–2021 Members of the Bundestag 2013–2017 Members of the Bundestag 2009–2013 Members of the Bundestag for the Christian Democratic Union of Germany Members of the Bundestag 2025–2029