No fewer than fifteen Alkmaar political parties hope for as many votes as possible in the upcoming municipal elections. That is why they competed with each other tonight during the election debate of Streekstad Centraal and NH Nieuws. They talked about housing, accessibility, the environment and energy and the reception of asylum seekers. And that was sometimes bad.
The evening will be kicked off with the hottest topic of the upcoming elections: housing. Alkmaar resident Elle Wessel immediately puts a painful problem on the table: her two adult daughters still live in her ‘pretty small house’ in the Spoorbuurt. One is looking for an owner-occupied home within the municipality, the other a social rental home. This is not possible due to a lack of supply.
All parties agree that construction is necessary. “Our election poster does not feature a crane for nothing,” said David Rubio Borrajo of the Labor Party. Some opposition parties even believe that the current coalition has not done enough to build more houses.
John van der Rhee of the coalition party VVD responds that ‘a lot has been set in motion’ in recent years, but ‘that does not solve anything now’. According to him, implementing the housing plans simply takes too much time.
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Self-occupancy obligation
The politicians reacted remarkably unanimously to the statement ‘for new owner-occupied homes there must be a self-occupancy obligation for five years’. The vast majority of parties are in favor of this. In this way they hope to counteract speculation in the housing market.
“If you want to make an open-air museum of our historic city center, you have to close it to cars. Never, never, never”.
Jelle Wittebrood of Forum for Democracy is against. “We are in favor of the free market,” he says. “Of course there are exceptions, for example someone with hundreds of properties in Amsterdam. But if a small entrepreneur in Alkmaar wants to invest in a property, that’s no problem.”
Arie Epskamp of Seniors Party Alkmaar calls this view ‘a crushing blow’ for young people who want to take steps on the housing market. “It’s getting harder for them.”
Accessibility
On to the next theme: ‘accessibility’. Do the politicians think that the city center of Alkmaar should become car-free? “Nonsense,” says Van der Rhee resolutely. “If you want to turn our historic city center into an open-air museum, you have to close it off to cars. Never, never, never do it.”
John Hagens of Leefbaar Alkmaar has doubts and shows both his red and green card. “Inner city residents should be able to get to their homes,” he says. Hagens does want tourists and day trippers to be made aware of parking options as soon as possible. “And the rate should not be too high. We have to make it attractive for visitors.”
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Environment and energy
The environment and energy are also a hot topic in the upcoming elections, which is why we propose the proposition ‘There are no sunbathing areas in Alkmaar’. ChristenUnie and GroenLinks, among others, say they want to use other options first, but cannot rule out solar meadows because the energy transition is ‘desperately needed’.
“Everyone focuses on green energy, but we can’t get rid of it. Make sure you can get it out first”
CDA absolutely does not want agricultural land to be used for solar meadows. “At the moment, farmers are being approached to have solar meadows built on their land. Money is being thrown at it and farmers are faced with a dilemma.”
But according to Postma, ‘what is happening in Eastern Europe’ – the Russian invasion of Ukraine – shows that the Netherlands should not be dependent for food from abroad. Ben Bijl of BAS agrees and adds: “Everyone focuses on green energy, but we can’t get rid of it. Make sure you can get it out first.”
Asylum reception
The last theme of the evening is the reception of refugees and housing for status holders. On the statement ‘Alkmaar should certainly not accommodate more status holders than now imposed by the government’, the FvD says ‘prefer not to receive refugees at all, but what must that be done’.
“Do not differentiate between people fleeing by bombs in Ukraine or bombs in Syria”
David Rubio Borrajo of the PvdA thinks otherwise. “I have never been ashamed of Alkmaar in thirty years, except now,” he says. At the moment no asylum seekers are received in the city, even though we are ‘a central municipality’. “Take that part. Kiev, Beirut, Baghdad, we don’t care.”
Party for the Animals shares this opinion: “If you are right, you will make the table longer and not the fences higher,” says party leader Kivilcim Pinar. “Do not differentiate between people fleeing by bombs in Ukraine or bombs in Syria.”
Watch the election debate below:
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