20-year-old Majd Abdullah has only lived in the Netherlands for five years and is already number 15 on the list of the Municipal Interests Hoogeveen party. Abdullah wants to enthuse young people for local politics and then become their voice within the city council. Today, the Alfa College student, together with VVD MP Mark Strolenberg, will give a number of guest lectures at his own school.
For Abdullah, it all starts during the corona pandemic. “The national elections were just around the corner. There were all kinds of debates on TV and I found that very interesting,” says 20-year-old Hoogevener. “I then started reading a lot of books and I studied politics a lot. At the time, I took a course at the Municipality of Hoogeveen, a course in political advice.”
Voice of the young people
During that course, Abdullah realized that he wanted to mean something to the municipality. “I started looking into the parties. And Municipal Interests, the name says it all, stands for what is important in the municipality of Hoogeveen. That is why I chose this local party.”
In that party, the Hoogevener wants to become the voice for young people in local politics. “I think that the voice of young people is not well represented in local and national politics,” explains Abdullah. It is only necessary to vote to become the voice of young people. And that is not so obvious yet. “I don’t notice that there is really resistance, but my peers are just busy with completely different things.”
Impressed
Member of Parliament Strolenberg confirms Abdullah’s statement. “It is a far from their bed show for many young people. But young people have to realize that things that take place in their municipality, such as education or housing supply and prices, that those issues really lie with the municipality,” says Hoogevener, who was born.
Strolenberg is impressed by the only 20-year-old Abdullah. “He has approached the municipality himself to see if he can be of any help. In five years’ time, he has already spoken very good Dutch. After five years, he also has an idea of how things are arranged in the Netherlands or how things should be arranged. That’s very admirable.”