Frans Timmermans gives an evening full of pep talk in Groningen: ‘If we do not become the biggest, there is a good chance that we will be on the sidelines’

“We must be given the opportunity to join the coalition and that is especially possible if we become the largest,” he said. “I know this country a little and there is a great tendency to settle for right-wing parties if the left does not become the largest.”

Timmermans gave a performance on Friday evening for several hundred supporters in the large hall of cultural center De Oosterpoort in Groningen, which was three-quarters full. It was mainly an evening full of pep talks from Timmermans himself, Members of Parliament Habtamu de Hoop from the Frisian Wommels, Julian Bushoff from Groningen and the city-Groningen GroenLinks-PvdA politicians Carina Bloemhof and Glimina Chakor.

To ask

Timmermans first spoke on stage with people from youth care, a victim of the Groningen earthquakes and a representative of energy collective Grunneger Power. He was then asked questions from the audience about the resignation of Kauthar Bouchallikht due to the party’s position on Israel (to which he replied: “You can expect us to be in both camps”), about salt mining in Veendam and Winschoten (‘I’m hearing about this for the first time, sorry”) and the unlucky generation that has to pay back its student loan (‘how on earth do you manage to accrue 100,000 euros in debt?”).

At the end he gave a short speech about green and red: “The livelihood of our children and grandchildren is in danger if we do nothing about the climate crisis.”

And he stood up for the emancipation of women and LGBTIQ people. “The acquired rights are in danger from the right. Let us not let our daughters and granddaughters have to fight again to get back what our grandmothers once achieved.”