Erik van Merrienboer (PvdA) resigned as mayor of Terneuzen on Monday. He resigns from his duties following a protracted issue regarding the arrival of an asylum seeker center in the Zeeland municipality. Van Merrienboer writes in a letter to the municipal council about “a breach of trust” in cooperation with the council, and about “an almost impossible administrative split”.
Van Merrienboer advocated the arrival of an asylum seekers’ center, but is leaving because a majority of the municipal council and aldermen are against it. While for a long time it seemed that Terneuzen was in favor of the arrival of an asylum seekers’ center. The municipality wanted to comply with the dispersal law by accommodating a maximum of two hundred asylum seekers.
The center was supposed to be located in a former office, but after the permit was applied for in February, protests flared up in the neighborhood. Residents collected signatures and sent angry letters to the council. A ‘face book’ surfaced on social media, in which council members who had voted for the asylum seekers’ center are depicted as rats.
Protest
A week and a half ago, the council finally voted against the arrival of the asylum seekers’ center. Thirteen council members were in favor, sixteen against. Council members who had turned around referred to thirteen conditions that had previously been imposed on the arrival of the asylum seekers’ center. These mainly had to do with safety, quality of life and participation. According to the council members, not all conditions had been met.
The mayor, who will continue to perform his duties until a successor is found, cites, among other things, “years of failed migration and reception policy” as a reason why municipalities experience pressure “to do the right thing”. His letter also expresses incomprehension towards the council members who voted against the arrival of the asylum seekers’ center. “What are really the prevailing objections to the permit that can be substantiated with facts?” he writes.
Van Merrienboer has informed the King’s Commissioner in Zeeland, Hugo de Jonge, that he will submit his resignation to the Ministers of the Interior and Justice and Security.
De Jonge, in turn, “urgently requested” Van Merrienboer in a letter to the Terneuzen municipal council not to resign. According to De Jonge, it is in the “interest of the governance” of the municipality of Terneuzen that Van Merrienboer will stay on. De Jonge does not comment further on the content of the decision.
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