We have to eat differently. We have to live differently.
According to Karin Dekker, the GroenLinks alderman who said goodbye to Assen last week. She was a guest on the RTV Drenthe program Casata on Saturday and became involved in a discussion with Jos Ubels of Farmer Defense Force, which fights for perspective for farmers in the Netherlands.
Where did Ubels ask Dekker, where did your breakfast come from this morning? ‘And a hard-working construction worker can’t get through the day on a veggie burger, right?’
However, Dekker was not to relent.
We have to…
Precisely that ‘we have to’ is, in my view, the reason why few Assenaren are mourning her departure. Dekker admitted it himself on Saturday: she has a certain style of management. I call it haughty. Dekker knows what’s good for you.
In one of our personal conversations – we had a number of them following my articles – I called her a typical example of a GroenLinks politician who preaches the ‘green gospel’ at the local level. And that from behind a desk, this alderman has never had much feeling for the Assenaar. Take Kloosterveen, her biggest stumbling block. The intention to exchange natural gas there before 2030 for an all-electric heat pump – often with high total costs – met with a lot of resistance.
There was unrest in the area. At one point, the documents received for the municipal council included a flaming protest letter from Dick van den Brand, who later became the leader of the ‘resistance group’ Duurzaam Kloosterveen. I wrote about it, Dekker was angry and she continued to deny the unrest for a long time. Until a petition signed by more than a thousand Kloosterveners was pressed into her hands.
The ensuing election defeat of GroenLinks – which was quickly kicked out of the college door by winner Stadspartij PLOP – was not Dekker’s fault.
According to Dekker.
No. She pointed to Assen Central, which, according to her, had ‘very cunningly’ won five seats by putting popular Assen residents on the electoral list. Let’s face the facts: the big voters were the veterans Albert Smit and Luc Rengers. And newcomer Anita de Rijke. That’s right, member of Sustainable Kloosterveen…
Finally, Dekker accused PLOP of ‘demagoguery’ when she received a vote of no confidence in the debate around Kloosterveen and she criticized the composition of the new Asser college. Just ‘old white men’. Bah. The Groningen woman herself would have liked to give it another term in Assen, but the aversion within the council against ‘aldermen from outside’ – led by PLOP and Assen Central – has grown to such an extent that this was not an option in advance.
How could that be?
Robbert Willemsen