The Voorschoten opposition comes with its own accord

The Voorschoten council discussed the coalition agreement on Thursday evening. (Photo: Maurice Hettfleisch)

The opposition parties in Voorschoten will work together this summer to draft a progressive agreement. GroenLinks party chairman Albert Deuzeman announced this during the board meeting on Thursday evening. With this agreement, the opposition parties want to develop their own plans. For example, they prepare concrete proposals when drawing up the coalition agreement.

The progressive agreement is a response to the coalition agreement, which was discussed at the city council on Thursday evening. The coalition parties had come to an agreement on the broad outlines, leaving room for ideas from the company and the city council.

Earlier, the opposition parties have already indicated the coalition agreement wave to find† At the council meeting, they hoped to get clarity, both on the plans for the deal and how the opposition and society were involved in implementing the deal.

Opposition parties tried to immediately fill the space to cooperate with the coalition on Thursday by tabling several amendment motions. With these proposals, D66, GroenLinks, PvdA and SP hoped that the coalition could make certain proposals from the coalition’s program more concrete. However, all amendments and proposals were rejected, as the VVD, VoorschotenLokaal and CDA voted against.

Journalist Maurice Hettfleisch spoke with Albert Deuzeman, Arnold Posthuma and Adriaan Andringa

The attitude of the coalition parties during the meeting leaves little hope to the opposition that there is really room for cooperation. “We have tried to cooperate consistently with the motions,” says PvdA adviser Arnold Posthuma. “It is very unfortunate to see that this is immediately ignored. This worries us for the future.

Trust
The opposition parties conclude that the coalition is working until after the summer to develop coalition plans and until then does not need to involve the opposition. That’s why the opposition is taking matters into their own hands by writing a progressive agreement.

“On some points, there are quite good ideas in the coalition agreement. We want to give substance to that,” says Deuzeman. “That’s what we want to offer the coalition. Hopefully this way we can start building Voorschoten together. You have to trust that the coalition will do it, otherwise it will be four very long years.

The opposition sees opportunities to incorporate the ideas of the progressive accord into college politics, if the coalition is willing to do so. “For example, CDA’s electoral platform contained very clear ambitions for sustainability,” says D66 party leader Adriaan Andringa. “If we make concrete proposals, it would be strange if the CDA did not adopt them. When it comes to housing, this applies to the Voorschoten Lokaal and when it comes to sound municipal finances, it applies to the VVD.

Library or MFA?
The Multifunctional Habitat is one of the few points where the opposition thinks it sees something concrete. After all, the coalition agreement stipulates that the conversion of the library into a “library with cultural functions” will begin this year. For this, the new council wants to use the budget which is equal to the previous plans for the Multifunctional Housing.

According to the opposition parties, this means that the coalition parties are now MFA plans choose the one they previously rejected: it is only for political reasons that they choose to give it a different name. VVD party leader Katrien van Meenen denies this and says she does not want to create false expectations with the name MFA, as not all associations can have a place in the library after the renovation. Andringa calls this framing: in previous plans, it was never promised that each association could have its place in an MFA.

Counter-coalition agreement
The new aldermen indicated that they looked forward to the progressive agreement. “We are always open to good ideas,” says Paul de Bruijn (VVD). “But in the end we’ll have our own coalition deal, we probably won’t take it all back.” His new colleague René Zoetemelk is also curious about the ideas of the opposition. “The counter-coalition agreement is welcome, because then we can reflect and help achieve this.”

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