At the age of 68, Jo van den Boogaard is a striking appearance in the youth party JO in Best. He has been party chairman since 1982 and has been a member of the municipal council for 25 consecutive years. “People sometimes find it strange that I still lead a youth party at my age, but being young is in your head and your heart. The outside may be a bit older, but the ideas are still fresh and good.”
The name of the party stands for Young and Unbound. “In short: JO. So I don’t think I can ever leave this party,” he says with a laugh. Jo tells how it all started in 1982. “With a bunch of dissatisfied young people, we wanted our own youth center. Then we squatted an empty farm in Wilhelminadorp that we had used for that for two years.”
At that time there was a lot of unemployment among young people and there was a lack of housing. “Because municipal elections were coming up, we went to find out which parties could do something for us. That was disappointing. Then we decided to set up a party ourselves.”
“I had time and had been to the town hall.”
Jo was then ‘already’ 27 years old. Pretty old for a young person. “Well, two were a bit older, but the rest were all much younger. They didn’t have time to sit on the city council, but I was still studying. I did have time and I had been to the town hall to talk to the alderman.”
Jo and his mates soon got the label of ‘fringe group youth’. A bunch of doeraks, who had some success in the early eighties. “We immediately came up with one seat in the city council. I had to report to the mayor. He made it clear to me that I should mainly listen and not ask questions. Of course JO didn’t!”
Four years later, the adventure seemed to be over. JO didn’t get enough votes and disappeared from the city council. “The farm was demolished and we got a wooden shed where we could continue our activities. However, we did not have such a good reputation and this also reflected on our party.”
“Young people have confidence in our party and in me. Nice, isn’t it?”
Twelve years later, in 1998, the party made a comeback. Now even with four council seats and an alderman. “I have always remained party leader and party leader. They think I can do this best and people still see me as the connecting factor of the party. Young people have faith in our party and in me. Nice is not it?”
Young council members of JO, PvdA/GroenLinks and D66 have jointly devised a plan to visit young people. According to Jo van den Boogaard, young people are quite interested in politics. “They do have their preferences. One likes sports, the other culture. But there are many more topics.”
And in the meantime, Jo will remain the party chairman of JO for a while. “People sometimes think it’s strange that I still lead a youth party at the age of 68, but with all my contacts with youth at, for example, the football clubs and the carnival association, I know what’s going on. As long as I feel like I can be of value, I’ll stay. Being young is in your head and in your heart. The exterior may be a bit older, but the ideas are still fresh and good.”