This week it was really about in the House of Representatives, but it was actually already clear in advance: “There is no benefit to it”, PvdA member Henk Nijboer varied on the cabinet report Nij Begun in response to the parliamentary gas extraction survey.
Still, they all walked hopefully into the chamber building, the dozens of Groningen earthquake victims, activists and administrators. For parliamentarians from Groningen it was also the week they had been looking forward to for months and SP member Sandra Beckerman even called it the most important debate of her life. All Groningen MPs were there, as spokespersons or to support their group mates: Jimmy Dijk of the SP, Stieneke van der Graaf of the ChristenUnie, Roelien Kamminga of the VVD, Julian Bushoff of the PvdA, Wieke Paulusma of D66 and Anne Kuik of the CDA.
Everything to get the most out of it. But everyone also felt that it wouldn’t quite work out, because Mark Rutte didn’t budge and the coalition kept its ranks closed. While the survey showed so hard that the Groningen people were fooled and used as a wing region.
Reason for Beckerman to demand a ‘wonder of the world’ for Groningen in a serious motion. Relativistic humor is not her style; she meant something comparable to the Zeeland delta works, which were also paid for with Groningen gas revenues and are referred to throughout the world as a wonder of the world.
The Groningen residents also demonstrated briefly in front of the chamber building. That in turn attracts all kinds of peripheral figures such as Max the torchbearer, the man who had threatened Sigrid Kaag and, dressed in his upside-down flag, intimidated politicians such as Jesse Klaver with a rotating camera straight in the face. But it all remained quiet with all those security guards next to it.
It was a little less quiet an hour before the Groningen debate, when two Extinction Rebellion ladies shouted and unrolled a banner about bee mortality. They were immediately removed by the police. The fifty Groningers who then spent two days and evenings tensely listening in the stands were a lot more polite. For a moment there was sometimes applauded or modest ‘boo’ shouted, strictly forbidden in that stand. But above all it radiated disciplined strength.
When it got late in the evening, chairman Vera Bergkamp even tipped from the audience what time the bus would leave again. Bergkamp and numerous speakers could actually appreciate the presence of those good Groningen citizens and it will certainly have made an impression.
But that did not mean that the man who has been primarily responsible for the lies and mistakes surrounding gas extraction for the past thirteen years, Prime Minister Rutte, even got into real trouble for a moment. So what kind of confidence could we have that he will make something of it in the near future?
To keep the spirits up, the reactions of the Groningen insiders were somewhat resigned and even hopeful. Because of course a lot of money is coming to Groningen and some really nice promises have been made.
With talks about an annual State of Groningen and a Groningen law, there is a kind of guarantee that we will keep our finger on the pulse. And that for thirty years. Somewhere in those thirty years will Mark Rutte make way?
Arend van Wijngaarden is a parliamentary reporter for Dagblad van het Noorden and describes his experiences in this section every week. Responses: [email protected]