Member of Parliament Agnes Mulder (CDA) wants more parties to take up the barricades for the preservation of the Johan Willem Friso Barracks in Assen. Yesterday it was announced that State Secretary Christophe van der Maat (VVD) is sticking to his intention to close the barracks. The CDA immediately asked parliamentary questions.
“It is not yet a race, but then we need more parties,” says the MP from Assen in the Radio Drenthe program. Cassata† Although the closure of the barracks in Assen already seems to have been decided, the State Secretary does not want to say that out loud yet. “No decision has been taken yet, there is now an administrative intention,” he said yesterday. But in Assen they already feel it: that barracks is closing.
The intention is that the soldiers from Assen will move to the barracks in Havelte. But Agnes Mulder also questions that. “I still have my doubts whether it will stop there. Those concerns have not yet been removed.” Yesterday, provincial administrator Henk Brink also made a similar noise.
According to Mulder, the State Secretary should take a good look at the support in the region. “His letter also states that value is attached to the influx of young soldiers in the vicinity of cities. Then I think: don’t we have that here? Let’s look at the intake with schools. Assen is for the average MBO ‘Easier to reach there from the north of the Netherlands than Havelte.”
Mulder also points out that employment in Assen is already under pressure in any case. Due to the increasing shutdown of the gas tap, NAM has already made significant cuts in its workforce. Ultimately, it is the intention that NAM will also leave the head office in Assen. “Something like that just has a lot of impact on the Assen region. If there are no new jobs coming back, you just lose it. I don’t want that. I want us to continue with the barracks in Assen.”
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