As usual, the past few campaign weeks have focused little on the Provincial Council or the water boards, but rather on national politics. And there was no election fever among the voters. Posters behind the windows of houses have completely disappeared, and can hardly be found in the streets since many municipalities have switched to standard plastic signs. Then as a voter you are dependent on the chance flyer that is pressed into your hand or your own research.
Anyone who focused solely on what national talk shows brought, saw – with a few exceptions – a parade of now unelectable politicians. To talk about topics that don’t matter right now. Or ‘list leaders’ of the Senate, who are not formally leading the list because Wednesday is not about direct elections for the senate. He will not be elected until the end of May by the members of Parliament and the electoral colleges for the Caribbean Netherlands and non-residents.
The focus on the Senate is understandable. Everything indicates that the coalition, as now, will not have a majority in the senate. This creates obstacles for the Rutte IV cabinet, which is less able to implement its policy. But it is becoming obscure that the Provincial Council and the water boards matter precisely in all those challenges facing the cabinet and the country.
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Of course, such an election halfway through a cabinet term can be seen as a temperature gauge for how coalition and opposition are doing. Will it be a settlement or approval of cabinet policy on Wednesday? Polls, and soon the results, are compared with the number of seats in parliament. But this means that two important layers of government are at risk of being held accountable for what the politicians in The Hague do or fail to do. Not on what they themselves have done or failed to do in the past four years.
This observation is not new. Every four years, it must be noted that the interests of the Provincial Council and the water boards are not sufficiently understood by the public, even between elections. That is alarming: how many members of Parliament actively participate in the public debate outside the provincial house for four years? How many water boards – just like the House of Representatives – invite dozens of school classes to learn what democracy is?
In return for NRC said a member of parliament from South Holland that the lee is also pleasant, there is less the issues of the day in the parliament room than in parliament. That is true, but it is a bad sign if residents only discover the importance of the province when a windmill is built next to their house, or because farmers demonstrate with tractors in front of the provincial government building.
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Few people talk about the unfortunate plan of the Rutte II cabinet to transform the provinces into five parts of the country. Nor about the idea of placing water boards under the provinces. There is no doubt that the province and the water boards have added value. All the intentions mentioned in the climate agreement, all the choices in the field of spatial planning, all kinds of administrative issues on which there seems to be or threatens to come to a national impasse, are not only on the plate of the national government, but also on that of these administrative levels.
Does sustainability take precedence over the economy? Does the water board raise the water level for biodiversity or lower it for agriculture? Will the scarce space in provinces be given over to industry, roads, housing or nature?
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And take nitrogen: the provinces must come up with plans before 1 July on how they will halve emissions and improve the quality of soil and water. Plans about where farmers and companies must be bought out – voluntarily or by force – to restore nature. The province also plays a key role in another sensitive subject – the distribution of asylum seekers among municipalities. As she already supervises the housing of status holders.
The composition of Parliament determines how mega data centers are handled, the construction of heat pipes and wind turbines, and the possible arrival of nuclear power plants. In the case of housing, too, it depends on the provincial government how quickly and where those hundreds of thousands of houses will be built.
This requires the broadest possible support, involvement. It is precisely now that residents experience a distance from politics and feel that ‘The Hague’ has no eye for their region, so that the province can make a difference. She must dare to take on that role more. If there is one administrative layer that knows what the region-specific challenges are, it is the province.
A version of this article also appeared in the March 11, 2023 newspaper