‘The Islam? You don’t hear about that anymore’

Herman Buddenberg wants things to become normally clean in his neighborhood. If the new city council of Rotterdam can take care of that, he will be satisfied. As he drives around in his scooter, he sees seagulls picking open the garbage bags next to the dumpsters. And not only that. “John and everyone is throwing all kinds of things out. They put their entire household effects on the sidewalk.” He’s just ashamed when he gets visitors.

Buddenberg (75) drinks a beer in café de Buurvrouw in the Feijenoord district of Rotterdam South. The question is what he expects from the new city council that just presented the coalition agreement. And what does he think of Leefbaar Rotterdam (10 seats) going to rule together with its counterpart Denk (4), with the VVD (6) and D66 (5)?

Buddenberg thinks that Leefbaar Rotterdam is sitting in the lecture together with Denk. He himself voted for it. “Give those parties a chance,” he says. “People from Rotterdam voted for it, so that’s fair too. As long as the people of Denk don’t claim that only foreign people have a hard time, he says. Because: that’s not right. Dutch people also have a hard time. Take his 36-year-old daughter, who was in misery for nine years because of the benefits affair. “And she’s not a foreigner.”

In the Feijenoord district, residents voted most often for Think and Liveable Rotterdam in the municipal elections in March this year. 21.6 percent of the residents voted for Denk, 15.4 percent for Liveable Rotterdam. The turnout rate was 33.6 percent. In Charlois, also in South, 20.3 percent voted Liveable and 13.9 percent voted Denk. In some districts, the parties together received about half of the votes.

Also read: Monster alliance in the Maasstad: Liveable + Think

Big differences

From an ideological point of view, the parties are quite distant from each other. Liveable Rotterdam in the past often criticized Denk, who demanded space for Islamic education, halal shops and city guards with headscarves. Denk found Leefbaar the party of “distributors and destroyers”. But in the current generation of party leaders, pragmatism predominates. It is about what we do for the people of Rotterdam, it was said at the presentation of the coalition agreement.

Now that he thinks about it, Buddenberg says, it would also be nice if there were some other stores. Yes, says his neighbor who drinks a beer next to him. Take the row of shops around the corner. There is a Turkish greengrocer, a Moroccan butcher and a Surinamese snack bar. I like frikandel every now and then, but every now and then you just want a special frikandel.”

Then the rest of the terrace interferes in the conversation.

“The rents have to come down. I pay 650 euros for a two-room apartment. On South!”

“How about 8.5 tons for a house in Feijenoord?! 8.5 tons!”

Ask on the street in Feijenoord what residents think of the new city council and some residents will look at you in surprise. New city council? They hadn’t gotten that yet. Others do know and start talking about the issues that need to be addressed. Especially the high costs for energy, groceries and rent. And parking costs. Do you know what it costs to park here if you want to go to the market, says a Moroccan Dutchman who voted Denk. He is chatting with a group of men at the edge of the market. “You’ve lost a few euros.” My peak day is Sunday, says Jamal Chaliui (41), who owns a shop for Moroccan dresses, djellabas, crockery and wedding jewelry. It’s always busy after 6pm. Then it is free parking. If payment has to be made, it will cost customers.”

Noise

Like many others, Mrs Neria Betancourt (60) is annoyed by the rubbish on the street, which she regularly picks up herself. And she is bothered by the noise, especially from young people who hang out late at night between the flats where she lives. There’s not much she can do about it herself, except ask them to leave. “Then they will go further.” She hopes that the city council will provide a youth club that is open until late at night. “So they can relax there.”

Nobody gets excited about Leefbaar Rotterdam and Denk Samen in the city council. “I hadn’t come up with that combination myself,” says Mohamed Akalai (50) on the Afrikaandermarkt. “As long as it goes well, it goes well.” He himself did not vote, because he was elsewhere. Usually he votes SP.

He eats a cup of corn with butter and salt that his friend and neighbor Mustafa Bay (48) sells. Mustafa voted for Denk in the last three elections. Bay and Akalai also think the city’s parking policy is a disaster. They’ve already heard of plans to introduce paid parking everywhere until 11pm. This is already the case in many places. Bay: „You go out for a coffee with a friend in the evening and you pay five euros. Nice expensive coffee. And then what should you do? Coffee after eleven?” They laugh.

Akalai wonders how Rotterdam will go green. “All houses must be off gas and insulated. How are people going to pay for that if they hardly have any money for bread and vegetables?”

Besides, he continues, if you want to reach the municipality, it’s impossible. “If you call the customer service number, you’re on hold forever. You have to log in via the internet with your DigiD to ask a question. They apparently have no idea that many Rotterdammers cannot do that, have no computer or no internet. What the hell is wrong with going somewhere, drawing a number, waiting a while and then being able to consult with a person?”

How do they view Leefbaar Rotterdam’s attitude towards Islam? For example, the election manifesto states that Islamic education should be discouraged. While Denk, which has many Muslim Dutch as its supporters, wants to give that space. Akalai and Bay think it will work. Akalai: “It’s give and take in politics.” Bay: “Islam, you don’t hear them about that at all lately, do you?”

Islam? Buddenberg also looks up in surprise. I have no problem with those people. “There are strange outliers among them, but you also have them among the Dutch.”

Also read this opinion piece by Nourdin El Ouali: A lecture with Liveable and Think can reduce polarization in Rotterdam