Rotterdam mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb (PvdA) will resign from office this autumn after fifteen years. The mayor reported this on Tuesday during his New Year’s speech at Rotterdam City Hall. In a letter to the city council he writes: “After serving our beautiful city for more than fifteen years, I think it is time to make way for a new mayor.” It is not yet clear whether Aboutaleb already has plans for after his mayoralty.
He will “determine the precise date of his departure in consultation with the presidency.” According to Aboutaleb, this is a good time for the announcement, because the municipal council and the council are “almost halfway through their mandate” and “well established in managing the city”.
Aboutaleb was born in 1961 in the Moroccan Rif Mountains and took office as an alderman in Amsterdam on behalf of the PvdA in 2004. From 2007 to 2008, he was State Secretary for Social Affairs and Employment on behalf of that party in the Balkenende IV cabinet, until he was appointed mayor of Rotterdam.
‘Nice colleague’
“I know him as a committed and committed director and a great colleague,” Amsterdam mayor Femke Halsema (GroenLinks) told ANP about Aboutaleb. “His mayorship was and is impressive. The city of Rotterdam has been in good hands with him for fifteen years.”
VVD mayor Jan van Zanen of The Hague tells ANP that Aboutaleb is “a loyal fellow director”. Van Zanen says that he already knew that Aboutaleb was considering leaving, and writes that “public affairs owe him a lot of gratitude.”