News of: Tuesday, May 17 2005,

Half of Amsterdam government now of non-Dutch origin and female

With the replacement of alderman Frits Huffnagel (responsible for financial affairs) by Laetitia Griffith, 50% of the aldermen of the city of Amsterdam is a member of an ethnic minority.
Also, half of them are women.


Amsterdam is run by the College of Aldermen and the Mayor (Job Cohen). Three of the 6 aldermen are now of non-Dutch origin.

Laeatitia Griffith, who is now becoming responsible for financial and economic affairs, is of Surinamese origin. She has been a member of parliament for the Dutch Liberal/Conservative party for 2 years.

Hannah Belliot (health care, culture, monuments and local media) is also originally from Suriname.

Ahmed Aboutaleb (social security, education, youth and diversity) has a Moroccan background.

The third woman in the College is Hester Maij (environment, public space, sports and recreation, and businesses).

In comparison with the 3 other other big cities in the Netherlands (Utrecht, The Hague and Rotterdam), Amsterdam stands out in this respect. At the moment, none of these cities has any representation of non-Dutch origin in its city government.

Here is more information by the city of Amsterdam.