Politics & Administration

Tomorrow, activist René Danen from Amsterdam will be one of the candidates for the national board of GroenLinks. However, current chairman Henk Nijhof does not want Danen on the board, among other things because of his court case against Geert Wilders (PVV). René Danen responds: “Nijhof is acting as if he’s Wilders’ lawyer.”

In an interview on Nu.nl, Nijhof says that Danen does not belong on the GroenLinks board because he would be stifling free speech with his court case against Wilders. Danen’s past call to boycott activist magazine Ravage would also fit in this picture.

Among other things, the city council appears to serve as an employment agency for political functions elsewhere. Since the 2006 election, 16 out of 45 council members have left, Binnenlands Bestuur reports. Most of them became alderman, MP or mayor. Nationally, 23% of the council members have left since the last election.

In Amsterdam, 4 council members have become aldermen, 3 became MP, 3 mayor of another city, and one found a job elsewhere. Four left for personal reasons and one for political reasons.

What issues are being debated in the run-up to the local election? A new website will follow trends on Twitter and on weblogs, with separate pages for Amsterdam and for the new districts.

For each municipality, the website shows messages from people who are involved with local politics online. There will also be opinion articles, links to online forums and rankings, for example of the municipalities where politicians are most active on Twitter.

“As far as I’m concerned, the district councils can be abolished.” With this ‘territorial mark’, party leader Pieter van Geel indicated what kind of budget cuts the Christian-Democrat CDA has in mind. Van Geel, who was a guest at the Pauw en Witteman show, claims the national government has to cut 35 billion euro over the coming years and thinks that government and politicians should not shy away from cutting away bureaucracy.

Getting rid of the district councils is relatively painless for the CDA, which is having its party congress today. District councils exist only in Amsterdam and Rotterdam, cities where the CDA has little followers and therefore few seats. In the 2006 election, the CDA obtained 12 out of 322 district council seats in Amsterdam.

[By Bouwe Olij] – There is a crisis going on, money has run out, we have to make cutbacks. That is what we get to hear day in day out. It is both true and untrue. There is no denying that the economy is in a bad shape. As for no money being left, that is a more nuanced matter. We do have to make cutbacks, but question is how much and on what. An important source of income for the municipality and the districts is revenue from parking fees. If we spend this money differently, cuts may not be as painful.

Local governments spend thousands of euros on activities to entice people to vote, but some of the money is spent on activities that are unlikely to have much impact. In order to achieve better results, governments should collaborate with volunteer organisations.

Further, it would make sense to send young people a text message reminding them of the election and to give people who have voted a small sticker, following the example of American ‘I voted’-stickers.

These are the conclusions of a survey of the get out the vote activities of 22 local governments (pdf) prior to the 2006 local election. The survey was conducted by News from Amsterdam and DOUNYA

More and more, districts ask municipal research institute O+S to assess public support for controversial plans, such as the construction of a car park. In an attempt to affect the outcome of such studies, local activists sometimes address respondents. This strategy may be successful, acknowledges Willem Bosveld of O+S.

The Zuideramstel district wants to construct a car park at the Churchilllaan. In August, O+S distributed a questionnaire in the neighbourhood asking residents how they feel about the plan. Subsequently, an action group distributed a letter door to door in which they claimed the questionnaire was biased and warned respondents that the car park would lead to higher parking fees and trees being cut.