The SP in Amsterdam has chosen Angelo Delsen as a new party leader for the March municipal elections next year. Delsen is currently still working as a police inspector in South, but puts that position down. In addition to SP party leader, he remains active as an inspector in the Zaan region.
“It’s a huge honor,” says Delsen with a smile. With his years of experience with the police, he thinks he can be of great value to the party. “I know how things are going in the neighborhoods. People see me as someone from the system. As a result, they take something from me faster than what they then call,” again such a left crazy “. But I know from the inside how it works. “
Socialist struggle, even outside the Stopera
As a party leader, Delsen wants to work for better and affordable housing, accessible public transport and a fairer Amsterdam legal system. “We have to get rid of the housing market and back to public housing. Living is a right, not a revenue model.”
But Dressing emphasizes that politics is not only used in the town hall: “The Stopera is a stage where you tell the socialist story. But the real struggle takes place outside the street, in the neighborhoods, with people themselves.”
Mentoring Remine Alberts
The choice of deli means that the current party leader Remine Alberts, who had also applied, takes a step back. However, she will remain connected to him as a mentor in the coming period.
“I have a lot of respect for Remine,” says Delsen. “She has many years of experience, and somewhere it also feels uncomfortable to follow such a big SP person. Anyway, the committee has chosen me. If they have confidence in me, then I can also have faith in that. That removes a lot of the inconvenience.”