Harsh words from Mayor Jan Zwiers of the municipality of Midden-Drenthe in his New Year’s speech tonight. The mayor lashes out at the cabinet and states that they are busier with each other in The Hague than with the problems in the North.
“They are barely approachable for the problems we experience here locally in youth care, housing, bureaucracy, excessive accountability and shortages in the municipal fund,” he says.
He also points to the attempt to abolish the distribution law. “While almost all municipalities see the dispersal law as a solution for a good distribution. We do 80 percent more in asylum reception in Drenthe than should be expected of us.” Since September, the municipality of Midden-Drenthe has had a night shelter in Beilen for asylum seekers to relieve Ter Apel.
Zwiers misses the connection between the northern municipalities and provinces with The Hague. “Certainly in the North, we currently feel too little respect for municipalities to enter into discussions with the government on an equal basis, to be part of the solution.”
According to Zwiers, interest will only follow if the cabinet wants things from the region. He points to Defense’s plans to expand the De Haar training ground in Assen in the municipality of Midden-Drenthe. “Then people like to use the space in the North. After all, it would cause too much inconvenience in the West.”
Zwiers is not the only mayor who expresses criticism about the state of affairs in The Hague. His colleague Eric van Oosterhout from the municipality of Emmen also criticizes the cabinet. “Refugees who have left home and hearth behind, fleeing wars, end up in a country where more and more people look away. In politics in The Hague, coldness and heartlessness apparently depend on a democratic majority and I must honestly admit that I am can’t get used to,” he said last week.
Van Oosterhout also mentioned the concerns about the so-called ‘ravine year’ that the municipalities are heading for without extra money from The Hague. In the municipality of Midden-Drenthe, this financial deficit also requires major cuts.