Shula Rijxman (D66) will immediately step down as alderman in Amsterdam. In a letter to the city council, she says that as a director she is “too often the subject of discussion in practice” to be able to properly perform her duties. Rijxman also writes that the position of alderman suits her “less well” than she had thought. “I don’t feel comfortable in the role anymore.”
Former NPO chairman Rijxman took office in June last year as alderman for, among other things, Healthcare, ICT and Participations. In council debates, she was regularly criticized by other parties for her muddled and hesitant behaviour. From the moment she took office, she was also haunted by an affair from her time at the NPO: a whistleblower who reported possible abuses at the NPO to the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science was never told that the senior official responsible maintained a “friendly relationship”. with Rickman. The Media Authority then started a (broader) investigation into conflicts of interest in Hilversum.
Promise not fulfilled
Two weeks ago, Rijxman had to answer to the council for the subsidy from the municipality of Amsterdam to the controversial cold caseinvestigation into the betrayal of Anne Frank. She had to admit that she had not actually let her officials investigate the recovery of the grant money – despite a promise made to the council a year earlier. Rijxman also distanced herself from the subsidy decision of her predecessor Touria Meliani (GroenLinks).
Rijxman is the second Amsterdam D66 alderman to resign in three and a half years. In September 2019, Udo Kock resigned from his duties as alderman for Finance and Participations after a conflict in the council about the sale of the ailing waste incinerator AEB.
Read also: Local D66 members are delighted with Rijxman’s arrival, former colleagues in Hilversum are surprised