For the Asser PvdA faction, there is no doubt that the plan must be put off the table again soon. “This is just the umpteenth balloon that is being released. For the third time the barracks, we have fought for the prisons in Veenhuizen, the Asser court, every time we have to drag it away from the doors of hell. It will stop once, how seriously will you take the North then?” grumbles Cindy Vorselman, who has already alarmed the House of Representatives faction.
Cultural clear-cutting
Even a pacifist like Jannie Drenthe of the SP wants to go to war, although she still has to discuss it within the group. “I was born and raised in Assen, and I can’t imagine the city without soldiers. This is important employment, and with the NAM we are already losing so many jobs.” Drenthe is disappointed that it is the umpteenth time that the barracks are in the line of fire. “Take it easy.”
Central calls the plan ‘great shame’ and ‘ill-considered’. Luc Rengers immediately warns of the enormous clear-cutting that will soon threaten the northern cultural field, referring to all music bands. “No barracks here, also means no more Royal Military Band Johan Willem Friso in Assen. Do you know what the consequences are for the corps? They will lose their conductors. And not only in Drenthe, but throughout the North. fatal.”
barter
The only Asser party with less strong war language towards The Hague is 50PLUS. The party already saw it coming that the barracks would come under fire from The Hague. “You won’t be able to stop it,” says Clemens Otto, although he does regret the course of events.
“That barracks is an open wound, which we have done nothing about in recent years.” Preservation in the current location will not be possible this time, Otto predicts. Simply because the barracks with many old buildings no longer meet the requirements.
“That was once realized for hundreds of conscripts a year, it is too big, and it is not easy to make sustainable. We offer them an alternative place at the TT Circuit, the training area is also nearby, and we are turning the old barracks into something unique for living, so don’t act defensively, but proactively help Defense to keep the jobs for Assen.”