According to the mayors, rapidly changing ad hoc measures undermine confidence in public administration and make citizens despondent. They signal that the government more often opts for repression, as a result of which the government has come to stand more and more against its own citizens. Also those who were initially of good will to comply with the corona rules.
‘Precisely now that many citizens are at a loss, the corona policy must not succumb further to the repressive temptation. Then the authority will continue to crumble to be able to impose mandatory measures – where necessary – and a trust problem will arise’, write mayors Femke Halsema (Amsterdam) and Paul Depla (Breda) in an opinion piece. de Volkskrant.
The mayors are pushing for fundamental revisions to corona policy and are proposing three steps: developing a long-term perspective as a priority, devising rules that are predictable, logical and reasonable and stop unequal and selective enforcement. The call is supported, among other things, by all mayors involved in the implementation of the corona policy in the Security Council.
Boiling point
The letter comes at a time when dissatisfaction in society about the corona policy seems to be approaching a boiling point. Last weekend, many catering companies opened for a day as a protest, today theaters and museums organized portest actions. They mainly object to what they see as arbitrary and unfair government rules. Mayors today showed understanding for the dissatisfaction, enforcers only handed out perfunctory warnings.
The mayors blame the cabinet for taking on the crisis management. ‘Slowly but surely, individual and joint responsibility disappeared from view during the press conferences and debates in the House of Representatives’, they write. In their view, the role of social partners has also diminished. As a result, attention shifted from self-regulation to enforcement as a central element of corona policy. Which also did not help: parliamentarians who themselves violate the emergency legislation and call for resistance.
‘In the crisis policy of recent years, the acute fight against the virus supplanted all other problems and interests in society. That is acceptable for a short period of time, but no longer after two years.’ According to the mayors, health care must be organized in such a way that free living together is hindered as little as possible by the virus. The Netherlands is an open society, they argue, in which education should always be accessible to everyone and public facilities and meeting places – such as culture, catering, and community centers – are always open.