It seems like a luxury position: getting so many seats that you as a party can form a college all by yourself. It happened to HOI Works in Hilvarenbeek. With nine seats, the party does not need coalition partners, but preferred to cooperate with other parties. But the negotiations broke down and so there is no choice now, HOI Werken will have to do it alone.
The local party has negotiated a coalition with the VVD and the CDA in recent weeks, but they have withdrawn from the consultations. “We tried, but after a few weeks of intensive consultation it was not successful. It is a difference of opinion,” said the HOI Werks group chairman, Ko van Hamelingen.
It eventually went wrong while discussing the staffing of the college, says Hamelink. According to Hamelink, it had been clear for weeks that the CDA and the VVD first wanted to discuss the occupation of the council and only then the content of the agreement.
“They said that again yesterday, that they wanted to be represented in the council with their own alderman who they would nominate themselves without other parties having any influence on it. That was not our preference. We looked for water with the wine, but unfortunately it didn’t work.”
According to Hamelink, continuing as a single coalition party is not preferable. “That is why we also entered this process after the elections. We wanted to make an agreement with the other two parties or with another party. That was always the plan and we have been focusing on that all those weeks.”
The big question now is: how to proceed with the current plans? If it is up to the party, there will still be a social agreement for the municipality of Hilvarenbeek. This means that the plans that the council has in broad terms are subsequently presented to the citizens. They then act as a kind of sounding board. “They can then let you know whether they see any blind spots and whether they miss certain plans,” said Hamelink.
Ronald Blok, party leader of the VVD, already announced on Tuesday evening that there were a few important issues. For example, according to the VVD, there was a lack of sound financial substantiation of the plans and there were different ideas about appointing aldermen.
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