Bijan Djir-Sarai

Bijan Djir-Sarai (Persian: بیژن جیرسرایی; born 6 June 1976) is a German politician of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) who has served as a member of the Bundestag from 2009 until 2013 and since 2017 until March 2025.^[1]

Bijan Djir-Sarai
Member of the Bundestag for Nordrhein-Westfalen
In office 24 October 2017 – November 2024
In office 27 October 2009 – 22 September 2013
Personal details
Born	(1976-06-06) 6 June 1976 (age 49) Tehran, Iran
Citizenship	German
Political party	Free Democratic Party (FDP)
Alma mater	University of Cologne
Occupation	Politician

Background and education

Djir-Sarai was born on 6 June 1976 in Tehran to a family of Iranian-Jewish background.^[2] He was sent to Germany to live with an uncle at the age of 11 by his Iranian family. He does not identify as having any religion.^[3]

Political career

Djir-Sarai joined the FDP in 1996.^[4] He first became a member of the German Parliament in the 2009 elections.^[4] From 2009 and 2013, he served on the Committee on Foreign Relations. In the 2013 elections, he lost his mandate.

Djir-Sarai was re-elected in the 2017 elections and subsequently served on the Committee on Foreign Affairs again. He served as his parliamentary group's spokesperson on foreign policy. In addition to his committee assignments, he chaired the German-Iranian Parliamentary Friendship Group.^[5]

In the negotiations to form a so-called traffic light coalition of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), the Green Party and the FDP following the 2021 federal elections, Djir-Sarai was part of his party's delegation in the working group on foreign policy, defence, development cooperation and human rights, co-chaired by Heiko Maas, Omid Nouripour and Alexander Graf Lambsdorff.^[6] In April 2022 he was elected as the General Secretary of the FDP.^[4] He resigned from the position on 29 November 2024 amid controversy over the FDP's departure from the governing coalition.^[7]

Other activities

Corporate boards

• Sparkasse Neuss, Member of the Supervisory Board^[8]

Non-profit organizations

• Walther Rathenau Institute, Member of the Board (since 2022)^[9]
• Europa-Union Deutschland (EUD), Member
• German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP), Member of the Steering Committee^[10]

Political positions

Djir-Sarai opposes Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel and favors the recognition of Hezbollah as a terrorist organization.^[11]

In a joint letter initiated by Norbert Röttgen and Anthony Gonzalez ahead of the 47th G7 summit in 2021, Djir-Sarai joined some 70 legislators from Europe and the US in calling upon their leaders to take a tough stance on China and to "avoid becoming dependent" on the country for technology including artificial intelligence and 5G.^[12]

Controversy

In 2011, the Internet platform VroniPlag^[13] Wiki documented numerous inadequately sourced passages in the thesis. The University of Cologne withdrew his doctoral degree on 5 March 2012, since scientific citation obligations had not been sufficiently considered.^[14]