Schipper is looking for this source of nutrition for the changed political climate in Central Drenthe, partly in the rise of social media. “That has many advantages, but it has also almost become reality,” he warns. “Opinions have become more important than facts, which no longer matter.”
A heated committee meeting a few days before he resigned was the last straw. He discussed it with his wife. “It was clear to us that this is not an environment in which I can and do not want to function.” Since he resigned as alderman, he has immediately noticed a difference. “Now I sleep wonderfully.”
The choice to leave politics in Central Drenthe fits in with a life in which Schipper often had to make drastic decisions. As a fourth-generation farmer’s son, he put aside his ‘wild dream’ of studying in Wageningen to take over his father’s dairy farm at the age of 17.
“That was a voluntary choice,” he says. “My father first developed a hernia and later exactly the same complaints returned to him. Then it was a decision: do you want to do something with the farm or are we going to stop it?”
In 2002, Schipper suffered from rheumatic complaints, after which he sold the family farm. “At that time you were already seeing increases in scale, and I was faced with outdated buildings. If you are not completely physically fit, it is relatively easy to make that choice rationally,” he says. “But emotionally it’s quite difficult.”
Schipper continued to work in agricultural accountancy and twenty years ago he entered local politics. During that time he worked with no fewer than six different mayors, and he maintains a ‘special bond’ especially with Jan Zwiers. “We were able to do beautiful files together and a great collaboration emerged,” says Schipper. “I look back on that with great pleasure.”
One of those files is the Defense claim on 200 hectares of land near Laaghalerveen, which should become part of the De Haar training area. “That has been going on for a while and I have to let it go now, but the file does hurt,” says Schipper.
Yet for him it was one of the nicer files he had the opportunity to work on. “The reason is terrible, but the process together with the residents was very nice,” he says. “I had very good contacts with all my employees and with the residents. I will miss that enormously.”