Striking alderman Bashara leaves Hoorn politics: but ambition is not gone

“I am at peace with it,” Bashara says about his departure. He refers to a statement he made more often in recent years: “If you hang around too long, you become part of the furniture. It’s okay. I’m not going to grow in this position anymore and I think you will.” must pursue.”

De Horinees moves, although only professionally for the time being, to Amsterdam and becomes program director of the Nieuw-West district there. He leads a project that aims to upgrade the deprived neighborhood.

Political animal

For a long time, Bashara was the West Frisian promise of GroenLinks. In 2017, he was in a supportive place on the list of candidates for the elections to the House of Representatives. The question seemed not if, but when the Horinees would leave for the Binnenhof. “I have been a political animal since my childhood. When you are young, you quickly think of the House of Representatives, the holy grail of political functions.”

“The obviousness of being on the way to the Binnenhof has completely disappeared in recent years,” he concludes. Yet the ambition has not gone away. “A position as alderman of a very large municipality, or becoming a state secretary or minister, is still a very interesting future perspective. But I also always look at what I can still learn in one place.”

Bashara has been asked several times for an alderman or even mayor. “I consciously refrained from doing that, because I think that sometimes you also have to get to know and develop other sides of yourself. NYou will give me colleagues at management level from whom I can still learn a lot.”

Price

A personal highlight was his crowning as Best Young Driver of 2020† A public award, which, according to Bashara, made the appointment extra special. “As an alderman you mainly operate in the background. I have peace with that, but that means that people do not always see how difficult it can be sometimes. Then such a token of appreciation is a huge boost. I have often had moments, that I thought, ‘Can I do this?'”

Green instead of black pete

In 2015, just a year after he took office as alderman, was such a moment. He barely survived a motion of distrust, after the municipality announced green ‘sustainability buds’ would come to Hoorn, during the Sinterklaas entry. Residents reacted furiously, after which the municipality withdrew the plan.

Bashara: “I’ve been awake for nights about this, yes.” The alderman learned lessons from that period: “You must stand before your people unconditionally. I should have kept my officials out of the wind, they cannot defend themselves.”

Redesign church square

The crown on his aldermanship, in his own words, was the redevelopment of the Kerkplein. After decades of haggling, the entire site was renovated and car-free. A compromise between residents and entrepreneurs, a discussion that took place during his time as alderman. The site was overhauled in 2020, to be completed in 2021. “The fact that all this was accomplished within my term of office makes me look back on it with great pleasure.”

We speak to Bashara on the Kerkstraat, near the Kerkplein. He couldn’t get the part of the city center completely car-free. Bashara, jokingly, when the umpteenth scooter speeds past: “We have to do something about this.”

The GroenLinks director admits that he would have preferred to see the square completely car-free. But he immediately adds: “That is the politician and the citizen who speak. The administrator thinks something else: that this square should be structured in such a way that it forms a reasonable average of different interests. A compromise.”

Driver

Bashara may have become a bit too much of a director after eight years as an alderman, he concludes. “When I started to find council debates almost a break from my work, I realized that the political aspect apparently appeals to me less than before.”

Bashara is therefore looking forward to his new job in the capital. A challenging job, but he likes it. “If you notice that you are never nervous before a performance, council debate or even election debates, that’s a nice feeling, but then it all stops a bit. I want to have my doubts again. Sometimes lying awake at night and thinking, ‘Shit, can I do this?'”

Big ambitions

Hoorn stands at the foot of great ambitions. In the near future, the municipality wants to ‘become more of a city’. The development of the multi-million dollar project Port of Hoorn, near the station area, is the most striking. He does not mind that Bashara, an important player in the project, will not make it to the finish line as alderman.

“I don’t think it’s necessary to always cut the ribbons. It’s about getting this project to a stage where it can’t go wrong anymore. I know it wouldn’t have come this far without me. Then you have can contribute.”