Mayor Renze Bergsma will talk again next week with residents of the Tuindorp district in Coevorden. It has been restless in the neighborhood for days because of the plan to accommodate minor female status holders. Last night the municipality set an emergency ordinance.
A first conversation took place yesterday. According to local resident Eiko De Blaauw, who speaks on behalf of the neighborhood, the mayor has now promised to talk to the neighborhood again next week. The municipality of Coevorden confirms that there is an appointment. “That must be the conversation,” says De Blaauw sharply. “If it shows that nothing changes, then talking no longer makes sense for us.”
The municipality announced an emergency ordinance. This applies until 10 July and forbids, among other things, burning fire and carrying things that can serve as a weapon. The reason is the unrest surrounding the arrival of fourteen minor single status holders. Several evenings, supporters were set on fire this week, protest signs have also been hung.
De Blaauw was almost dinner last night when his phone rang. “We didn’t see it coming,” he says about the emergency regulation. “The mayor called me against dinner time to explain it. And I also understand the measure, because it is not nothing that happens.”
“We already had a conversation with the mayor in the community center yesterday afternoon. But it felt like that conversation hadn’t come, if we hadn’t approached him about it when he cycled through the neighborhood,” says De Blaauw. “We would have preferred that the mayor had already informed us about that emergency regulation during that conversation in the community center. Because he did not do that, the confidence in the mayor has turned into distrust again.”
Despite the rising tensions, the core of the neighborhood remains calm. According to De Blaauw, the people who live closest to the houses in question are the quietest. “We know that the troublemakers do not come out of our street, they are troubles who start such ‘riots’. We just want to live nice.”
Yet there is also frustration. The neighborhood feels heard, but not completely understood. The explanation of the police about the emergency regulation differs from agent to agent, and that causes confusion. “One says this, the other. That is why we as a neighborhood have decided to do a pass in place.” De Blaauw hopes that it will remain calm in Tuindorp until the coming conversation with Mayor Bergsma.