Gemma and Atilla, the managers of Café ‘t Uilennest in Tilburg, are going crazy with waiting. At the beginning of this year there was a police raid. The café was then closed by the mayor just before carnival. The judge put a line there again and since then the managers live in great uncertainty about their future. “It makes me emotionally very bad, we have been in the shit for almost five months.”
After the closure by the mayor and the position of the judge there was an objection procedure. Everyone was allowed to have his say. For weeks, Gemma and Atilla have been expecting the announcement that their café must still be closed. “We are working on it every day, we can’t plan anything at all.”
At the end of January a raid took place in ‘t Uilennest. Ten men, according to the police former members of the forbidden motorcycle club Satudarah, were arrested and released a day later. During the raid, a considerable amount of cash that the men had with them were seized. The café was then seen as a place where ‘forbidden meetings’ are held.
According to Mayor Weterings, public order was affected by a meeting of a forbidden motorcycle club from the café. That is why he decided a month after the raid and two days before carnival that ‘t Uilennest had to be locked for six months. But the judge ruled differently and the mayor had to make a decision again.
Four weeks ago there was another conversation between the lawyers of the municipality and Atilla and Gemma. “It was hard to keep my mouth shut,” says Gemma. “We have been waiting for a decision for weeks now, but it will not come.” And that is very heavy for the managers. “My health was not good, but now I can hardly do anything anymore,” says Gemma vibrating. “My energy is gone, I am already sleeping on the couch at the beginning of the evening.”
She feels that the café still has to close for six months. “The municipality wants that because they are afraid that it still escalates. Or because former members of Satudarah come to take revenge. But it has been quiet here and out of respect the men no longer come.”
And that respect does not come from the sky because Atilla has known the men for years. “They are neat guys,” he said earlier in court. He knew about their background. “But there was no hassle, no shouting. Sometimes they are there every two weeks, sometimes every three or four. Sometimes not a while. Just like any other customer.”
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The two do not want to think about a closure. “The fair is coming. Then we always take care of the start of the disabled fair with free drink, chips and ice cream for three hundred people. And we can’t be closed at Christmas either, lonely people come to celebrate Christmas.”
Gemma receives questions from clubs and associations that accommodate in ‘t Uilennest almost daily whether they can remain open. “The clubs cannot plan anything. I am afraid that they will not return because of all this uncertainty after the summer holidays.”
It is striking that the managers see that it has become busier in their café. “We have become a kind of father and mother from a student group and we see people who come to play billiards spontaneously,” says Gemma. “That’s nice.” Whether it has become more fun now that the former members of Satudarah are gone, she reacts reluctantly. “Could. I know that more people stayed away over the years.”
According to a spokesperson for the municipality, the mayor must make a decision and await an advice from the objection committee.
