An information meeting of action group F35 No in Paterswolde attracted more than 300 people tonight. The worries about the possible arrival of fighter jets at Groningen Airport Eelde are huge and the area has many questions. The interest was so great that not everyone fitted in the room.
“Many more people came to it than we expected,” says Guus van Os of the organization. “We had room for 250, but the run -up is so huge that we had to send people back who now had to look at home via the live stream. We had to intervene because of fire safety.”
Defense wants to fly more in the Netherlands with fighter jets. In total it concerns 2,300 extra flight movements per year. Due to the increased unrest in the world, the need to do that above the Netherlands is greater. But at the moment there is not enough practice room for fighter jets in the Netherlands. The Ministry of Defense therefore investigates where there is room. Eelde is one of the four options.
Although most visitors understand the necessity, nobody is enthusiastic. “Contractors cannot already handle Groningen’s recovery measures, how can they already do the extra insulation measures against the sound of F35? They don’t pull that at all,” a visitor notes. “The ink of the recovery measures for the earthquake area has not yet dried up or this plan is coming,” another responds.
The high turnout at the meeting was also noticed by the Drentse and Groningen drivers. “The room is bursting out of his feet, my car is somewhere far away in a strange place, but it is alive and that is good,” says alderman Rik van Niejenhuis (PvdA) of the municipality of Groningen.
That so many people are going, says Van Os a lot about the subject: “People want more information. The consequences are still a bit underestimated here and there.”
Similarly Stieneke van der Molen from Groningen-Zuid. “I read it more or less by chance. I knew it played in the country, but not that Eelde was involved. So I thought: I have to know a little more about that,” she says. “Now I am very shocked and alerted. It makes me very militant. I have never been to The Hague to protest something, but if necessary I will come along.”
Yet most people in the room have long been aware of the possible consequences. Most of the worries are about the sound, the vibrations that people can feel in their bodies. But also the impact on mental health, value of homes, impact on nature and odor nuisance of kerosene are mentioned by bystanders. “Do you know how it feels?” A visitor wonders aloud. “It is the chicken slaughter with the golden eggs.”
“I think it is dramatic for this region,” responds a local resident. “I also understand that we live in a strange time. But I think that this area has been heavily loaded anyway because of all the earthquake thing and all ugliness that likes to be placed in East Groningen. To do this with it, I don’t find a jofel idea.”
“It feels like a ticking time bomb,” another visitor responds. “If war ever comes, the bomb is the first to fall here. Is there also an evacuation plan?”
The province of Drenthe, the province of Groningen, involved municipalities and also nature organizations had already announced that they did not support the plans. The province of Drenthe used a so -called no-go for the proposal of Defense. Deputy Yvonne Turenhout (PvdA) also called steel hunters from GAE “not negotiable”.
It is up to the cabinet to finally make a decision. Next Friday there will be a new consultation with State Secretary Gijs Tuinman (BBB). Then the directors want to do their best again to penetrate the minister that the arrival of fighter jets to Eelde really is not possible. “If necessary, we play it through the Lower House,” says Turenhout. “But when it comes to that, we all missed some turns.”