The province is going to press charges after the leak surrounding the appointment of the new mayor of Tilburg. She informed Omroep Brabant on Thursday. Due to the leak to the Brabants Dagblad, in which Esmah Lahlah was mentioned, the new mayor will be announced early on Thursday evening.
“Leaking from the procedure surrounding the appointment of a mayor is punishable,” says Ina Adema, the King’s Commissioner. “It is a violation of official secrecy and therefore a crime.” Adema will report the leak together with the municipality of Tilburg. She calls it “morally reprehensible” because it could harm the people involved.
Lahlah, number two on the GroenLinks-PvdA list, already applied for mayor of Tilburg during the election campaign in July. She was a councilor here from 2018 to 2023 and gained national fame when she tried to survive on social assistance benefits for a month.
Emergency consultation
Mayor Weterings’ successor would be announced on October 30. Accelerating the nomination should prevent the appointment procedure from being disrupted by names that are announced prematurely. In any case, Lahlah will not become the new mayor of Tilburg
Seventeen candidates were in the race for mayor, nine men and eight women. The new mayor will be sworn in on January 21, 2026 in the Tilburg City Hall.