Where can young people in Venlo still go? ‘You don’t hear about Wilders about that’

German tourists with shopping carts stroll along the market in Venlo. They bring cans of soda, coffee and flowers. In the corner of the market hangs a group of older men with scooters and electric bicycles.

The question is whether they have voted yet.

“VSP,” they shout. The Venlo Seniors Party. That guy, that party leader, his name is Sjors, they know him from back in the day. “It does something for the people.” It is the first time that they vote for the senior party. Before this it was always Wilders. But yes, says retired municipal official Haj Lommen (69): “That makes no sense. Wilders gets nothing done. Whether you vote for it or not.”

Lost seats

The PVV is the third party in the Netherlands – that was so last year in the elections to the House of Representatives, and that is still the case in the polls. But locally there is not much to see. The PVV lost last week in many municipalities and has a total of 61 seats left. Geert Wilders is no longer so popular in his hometown of Venlo. Four years ago, the PVV came here with four seats in the council. Wilders found that too little: “I would have preferred to have been the largest party in my own Venlo,” he said at the time. But last week, the PVV halved, to two seats.

The PVV voters may have switched to local parties. Just like in the rest of the country, they also won in Venlo. The Venlo Seniors Party, which had only just been founded, won four seats. ALocal is the largest with eight seats. Yet the leaders of both local parties do not think that they have cost the PVV votes. “Our programs don’t resemble each other at all,” says Frans Schatorjé of ALokaal. “They have suffered more from FvD.” It participated for the first time in Venlo: one seat. And the rest of the runaway PVV voters? Schatorjé: “They stayed at home.”

Solution for loitering youth

A lot of PVV voters can be found on the Venlo market on Saturday. Eric Schippers (62) wears a red hoodie under his jacket. During the week he makes steel plates, on Saturdays he sells sausage rolls at the market with a friend. “I always vote for the party that wants to change things,” says Schippers. That was the last times in his eyes the PVV. Not this time. Schippers did not vote. “Wilders shouts a lot, but I miss the content. So what’s the point then? It’s not that I disagree with him, but we need politicians who do something.”

Schippers would like to hear solutions to concrete problems, such as the loitering youths in his neighbourhood. “I used to go pinball machines at the community center with my friends. But they don’t exist anymore. Where can young people go now? You don’t hear about Wilders about that.”

Also read: More parties than ever, but less to choose

Leonard Sitanala (57), who drinks coffee next to the fish stall, also mentions loitering youth when asked about his choice of voice. It became PVV. But only because the SP, which he would have preferred to vote for, did not participate in Venlo. “I think Wilders talks too much about migration. That is certainly an issue, but not the main theme. It could be an ounce less. Rising rents, the living environment, these are issues that affect people right now.” It also plays a role for market visitors that the PVV will never form a coalition. Sitanala is also aware of this. “They achieve nothing.” But he will never vote for a middle party. “All crooks.”

Torn ballot paper

There is another reason that is mentioned in Venlo not to vote PVV this time: they did not know that the party was participating. Some people have such aversion to politics that they don’t want to hear about it. An elderly man with a bratwurst sandwich holds the entire Venlo city council responsible for the fact that an ugly building has been built in front of his door. “Because of those scammers I now have no view.” So when his voting pass came in, he immediately “torn it up and threw it away”. He did not know that the PVV, which he votes for nationally, was also on the ballot. “Really and truly? Then I would have gone.”