The chain of office, which suddenly turned out to be broken on Monday during Cees Bijl’s farewell, still had to be repaired in a hurry, but just after eight o’clock on Tuesday evening she hung gleaming around the neck of Jan Zwiers, the new mayor of Midden-Drenthe.
Jan Zwiers has recently been asked several times whether he always wanted to become mayor, he says in his speech after his official swearing-in by King’s Commissioner Jetta Klijnsma. ,,Well no. In my youth, of course, I had bongel years , puberty. If I didn’t do my best at school, my father called me out quite urgently. “Nothing will come of you that way,” he would say. Supported with the question: ‘ What woj become, mayor of the orburned village’ ?”
And bursts of laughter resound through the packed council chamber in Beilen, where not only Zwiers’ wife and both sons, but also his mother, parents-in-law, other family, friends and former colleagues are in the stands.
See opportunities
On Thursday he said goodbye to Hoogeveen alderman after three years, now he is eager to get to know Central Drenthe and especially the inhabitants. “A mayor is not only there to solve problems, to pay attention to serious and sad situations. It is also about seeing and exploiting opportunities. To have fun together, to laugh, to tears,” he sums up.
He doesn’t want to make too many promises in advance. “As the Roman poet Horace wrote: ‘Promising much weakens confidence.’ As far as I’m concerned, it’s about meeting people, building relationships and working together to make the best decision. Show that you are genuinely involved, make an effort to understand others and let go when you are no longer needed.”
Drenthe College
Zwiers will start his training period on Wednesday. But everything in its own time, he added. “For me, the quality of the conversation is more important than having as many introductory conversations as possible in the shortest possible time.”
A Drents incubator course for beginners from the Huus van de Taol, as was given to mayor Renze Bergsma van Coevorden, for example, is not necessary for the inhabitants of Aalde, concludes director Renate Snoeiing. No, Zwiers gets a Drents lecture for advanced students. Pruning: „ To learn how to apply regional language at the administrative level .”