Tiel councilors Frank Groen, Carla Kreuk-Wildeman (both Citizens’ Party) and Remco Dijkstra (VVD) have resigned. This became apparent during a council meeting on Wednesday evening, writes The Gelderlander.
NRC reported on Sunday about a confidential account that Mayor Frank van der Meijden sent to the province of Gelderland after his departure in March last year. In his fight against crime and undermining, the CDA member said he turned to councilors who were allegedly involved in criminal and administrative law cases. He didn’t mention any names.
Councilors Dave Verbeek and Jur Marringa (GroenLinks-PvdA) responded that they were innocent and demanded an independent investigation. According to the pair, fellow councilors Groen, Kreuk-Wildeman, Dijkstra and acting mayor José van Egmond did not want to support that request. Reason for the GroenLinks-PvdA members to resign from their duties on Wednesday morning.
Wim de Boer, leader of the Citizens’ Party, spoke on Wednesday evening The Gelderlander of “an unsafe working situation for our councilors”. The VVD says it no longer wants to “expose councilor and fellow party member Dijkstra to suspicion,” according to the regional newspaper.
The Citizens’ Party, which won eight of the 27 seats in the municipal elections and became the largest in Tiel, announced that it would no longer participate in the “ongoing formation process”, the talks of which have stalled.
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Correction June 11 (00:30): The intro to an earlier version of this news item stated that the two resigned councilors from GroenLinks-PvdA doubt the integrity of the three fellow councilors. That is incorrect. They regret that the trio would not want to support an independent integrity investigation. That has been adjusted above.