“People are sleeping outside,” Korteland said when he announced the decision for the second asylum boat at the end of September. “It is very exciting whether everyone has a roof over their head. And if they are lucky enough, they sleep inside on a chair.”
At the time, the mayor of Meppel made no secret of the fact that he believes that other municipalities should also take responsibility.
Liberal Korteland prefers not to get involved in the fact that a crisis has now flared up within the Hague faction about the asylum law. In a short response he reports: “I think that all municipalities should do their part. At the same time, an endless stream of people cannot be accommodated. I don’t think anything of the ‘group meeting’. Everyone – including me – expects leadership from the national politics.”
The chairman of the VVD Drenthe is René Laan from Klazienaveen. In fact, he does not interfere with the substantive politics of the party, and therefore also not with the current crisis within the national VVD faction about the controversial asylum law that will now have to be sworn by VVD leader Mark Rutte. “I’m not about asylum policy, I don’t make political decisions as regional chairman. I make sure that everything around the party organization runs smoothly in our region, arrange things around the elections and such. That’s what I was ordered to do.”
But with the application center in Ter Apel just around the corner, Laan knows better than anyone how big the problem is there. And all that a solution is necessary. “But I understand the enormous struggle within our national group around this asylum law. Because what is liberal about coercion? But well, windmills have also been placed in this region, without everyone agreeing with it.”
As far as Laan is concerned, a solution must be found quickly for the shortage of reception places for asylum seekers, apart from the high influx, which also needs to be addressed. “Because everything that has happened in Ter Apel in recent months is really disastrous. And there are municipalities that casually say: Not in my backyard. However, this situation must be resolved. Only that is not up to me, but to politics in The Hague, and therefore to the national faction. I hope they get out.”
text continues below the photo