“It became increasingly intense and grim. There were people who were not from our community, but also people I used to go out with. It was confrontational. I thought: gosh, a few months ago we were still standing quietly next to each other, now I don’t know how we can build a bridge.”
Emmeke Gosselink (Residential, non-partisan) is a councilor in Bronckhorst – she is also from there – and in recent weeks, like countless other local administrators, she was confronted with angry anti-asylum demonstrators. The Gelderland municipality had to decide on two locations where unaccompanied, minor asylum seekers will be admitted next year. It was already decided last year that 160 of them would come, but now it concerned the exact locations in the villages of Vorden and Hengelo.
During the first meeting, loud objections were expressed inside and fireworks were thrown outside. The protest was so intense that the mayor decided to suspend the meeting and continue it digitally a week later – so without an audience. On Thursday evening, the public was again not welcome in the council chamber, where the majority of the city council approved the two locations.
‘Spicy language’
Gosselink had posted a cry from the heart on LinkedIn, which was widely shared among fellow councilors elsewhere. Aldermen, just like councilors and mayors, are obliged to live in the municipality about which they make decisions. And very often they also come from that municipality.
Gosselink wrote that she had felt unsafe: “There you are – in the middle of the ‘arena’ with unrest behind you, which you cannot see. The tension and aggression increased and I felt increasingly unsafe… not personally, but the situation would become very unpleasant if it really escalated.”
This time, demonstrators stood outside for the arrival of the asylum seekers, dressed in white and holding signs that read ‘the silent majority’
She ended with: “I would like to go back to that time, where we could disagree with each other, we looked at each other, laughed and toasted to lives that were very different from each other.”
It remained quiet on Thursday evening, she says with relief. Fences and cameras had been placed outside and everyone had to identify themselves. This time there were also demonstrators outside who were in favor of the arrival of the asylum seekers, dressed in white and holding signs stating that they are “the silent majority”.
“There can be both sides, supporters and opponents. Everyone must be able to express themselves, but the limit is intimidation,” says Gosselink, who, as a Housing Councilor, is used to receiving emails with “strong language”. “But always within the reasonable limits.”
Noabership
In the council meeting on Thursday evening, PvdA faction leader Luuk Preijde said that council members hid their badges and did not dare to walk to their car alone. Gosselink himself skipped the fairs around the harvest festivals in Bronckhorst this year: “I didn’t feel okay, not safe enough.”
She found it confrontational that this time she did not know “how to bridge the gap”. “How are we going to do this as a society?” Gosselink also does not feel supported by national politics. “The distribution law is there, and we must implement the law. Then it does not help if there is opposition from The Hague, or if Wilders calls for ignoring what mayors or the municipal council are doing. That undermines local democracy.”
Gosselink has doubted whether she should speak out or whether it would harm the aldermanship and people are starting to doubt whether they want to become aldermen after the municipal elections in March next year. “But if we normalize this behavior, it will be even more harmful.”
She does see a bright spot: “I received an email from a resident who wrote that she was very much against the arrival of the underage asylum seekers, but was just as against how Bronckhorst was now seen by the outside world. This was not parenthood.”
Also read
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