The PVV disappears from the Emmen city council. Klaas Bosma, the last remaining councilor on behalf of the party, makes the switch to the Local Group Hart voor Emmen. This puts an end to the representation of the PVV on the Emmer Council.
Bosma does not call his departure a slightly decisive decision. “You don’t decide something like that on an afternoon. It is the result of an accumulation of irritations and disappointments,” he says. “You can compare it to a good marriage, in which there is cracking over time. If the differences ultimately become too large, nothing else remains than the divorce.”
In recent years, Bosma says. After the loss of his colleague Mirjam Kuhl because of a burnout, he was largely alone. “As a new councilor without experience, without a support fraction, that was a substantial tax. And that while I combined this with my work and family.”
He rang the bell in The Hague several times, but according to him there was no support.
Yet it started to wring. Bosma from strong criticism of the internal working method of the PVV. “I had more and more trouble with the fact that everything within the party is determined by one man: Geert Wilders. I always worked hard to turn the PVV into a member party, but that was never taken seriously.”
A specific moment that touched him was the fall of the cabinet. “When Wilders pulled out the plug without a consultation, it was the low point for me. It felt like a weakness and as a signal towards the voter that their voice does not matter in the end.”
Although he can still agree with many PVV ideals, he finds the course too one -sided. “It seems like everything is just about asylum and immigration. But there are so many more themes that affect residents.”
He sees his switch to Hart voor Emmen as a logical next step. “There I can continue to propagate the views that I have always defended on behalf of the PVV. And I will do that too.”
With its departure, the PVV disappears completely from the Emmer city council. Next year there will be municipal elections. The question is whether the group will return to Emmen with a new occupation.
Bert Vorenkamp of the provincial PVV reacts disappointed. “I haven’t heard the news yet, but I saw it coming.” Bosma had already expressed his doubts about his stay with the party at an earlier stage, according to Vorenkamp. “Whether I understand his action? His motivation is, but not getting on. In my eyes that is unnecessary. Anyway, I can’t stop him.”
The PVV wants to participate in the upcoming municipal elections in Drenthe in Emmen, Borger-Odoorn, Assen, Coevorden and Hoogeveen. For the first three, the PVV has now found three candidates per municipality. “They still have to go through the final ballotage.” For Coevorden and Hoogeveen there is so far too little growth.