A striking new name for Janny Volmer’s fraction in the Eemsdelta city council: Fair Democratic Eemsdelta, or EDE. What does using the name of folk singer Ede Staal mean?
Volmer was part of the Labor Party (PvdA) faction in the Eemsdelta municipal council, but broke with the party in November 2021. Since January she has been brooding on a new faction name, which did more justice to her current team of seven strong. ,,The old name ‘Fractie Janny Volmer’ was very focused on me as a person”, says Volmer.
After a long search and about twenty tries, she recently read somewhere a party name with the abbreviation ODE. “That reminded us of Ede Staal. For me he is an icon of individuality and inspiration. He was not a songwriter of the level ‘I love you I will remain faithful’, but he was way above that. He was a poet, a poet. I’m a fan, you can tell. I can’t listen to him without a tear.”
‘Original and liked’
Volmer received the blessing of Fieke Spoel, the widow of Staal. “If she had even had a little trouble with it, we wouldn’t have done it. When she responded enthusiastically, the bullet was through the church”, says Volmer.
Fieke Spoel is indeed pleased with the name. “I thought it was original and I liked it. The name ‘Ede’ is of course alive among Groningen residents, but it is also just a name, or a place in Gelderland. I liked that she asked.”
But getting away with Ede Staal politically, you can question that. Surely the beloved folk singer belongs to all Groningen residents, not exclusively to a party? “People may think it’s a worthless name, you keep that,” says Volmer. “We think this suits us well, because of the credibility that our group strives for: ‘interrogate someone under oath’. But of course that says every party that comes up with a new name.”
‘The Ede Staal Group, that would have been different’
Spoel does not think that the people of Groningen have problems with the name. “That did not occur to me. How Ede himself would stand in this, I don’t know. I don’t think it would have mattered much to him if he had been alive.”
Johannes Peetsma, better known as the TikTok Tammo type, also has no objections. He will be singing Staal’s music during various performances this fall. “I think it’s a nice and innocent wink. Honest Democratic Eemsdelta really sounds like a political party. If it had been the ‘Ede Staal Fraction’, it would have been different.”
Still, he wouldn’t be surprised if some are annoyed by the new name. ,,There are also people who think that I should not touch the music of Ede Staal, I sometimes get those reactions.”
In the voice of his character: ,, Doar most nait arrive’n ! Those people will think so too. But to get really angry, you have to be a purist.”
About Ede Steel
Ede Ulfert Staal (1941-1986) worked as an English teacher and became nationally known as a singer and poet. He had a short but very successful career with poetic and melancholy songs written by himself about life in the Groningen countryside. It earns him the nickname ‘de Jacques Brel van Groningen’ op.
He sang most of his songs in Groningen. Hundreds of thousands of his albums were sold copies sold. Staal already acquired cult status during his lifetime. When he became more famous, it turned out that he had lung cancer. He died at the age of 44 and is buried in Delfzijl.
Ede Staal’s music has been on streaming service Spotify since December 2017. Are most popular number among DvhN readers It’s never been so dark west can be found continuously in the annual Top 2000 of NPO Radio 2 since 2019.