Running for city council

Student rulers

Maarten van der Laan, number seven on the electoral list for the PvdA (Labour Party)

Master student of state and administrative law Maarten van der Laan (24) joined the PvdA in 2012. He’s represented the party on the municipal council for the past four years. ‘I was studying philosophy and they talked a lot about what made a just society. I thought that was really interesting, so I thought that politics might be for me. My mother, who is a PvdA member herself, advised me to join a political party.’

And so he did. He joined the Meppel chapter, because he still lived there at the time, and was soon asked to stand for the municipal council there. But the young politician decided to join the Groningen council; he had been making plans to move to the city for a while.

During this last council term, Van der Laan has fought to combat domestic nuisance and to help out tenants in conflict with their landlords. He also wrote a proposal to add more green spaces to the city. ‘I love making plans, talking to people, fine-tuning the plans, and getting the council to vote off on them.’

He combined his work on the council with no fewer than two studies: law and philosophy. Van der Laan says it was fun, but hard work. ‘Once you’re on the municipal council, it kind of becomes your life’, he says, laughing. Van der Laan thinks the city should focus on combating the social divide, put up new residences to fight the housing crisis, and improve the housing for educational institutes.

The young politician is confident he’ll have the chance to work on these issues over the coming term. ‘I think the PvdA is on the up right now and that we’ll have room to grow.’

Laura van de Giessen, number six on the CDA (Christian Democratic Appeal) electoral list

This is master student of communications Laura van de Giessen’s first time being actively involved in the municipal elections. But the 23-year-old has always been interested in politics. ‘I started reading the paper when I was young and kept up with politics that way. I did that fanatically for a really long time without even being in politics.’

Van de Giessen worked for student association the Navigators for years, where she gained quite a bit of board experience. Once her agenda opened up, she decided to take the next step. ‘The preparations for the campaigns had started ages ago. The CDA was looking for people to help them, so I signed up.’

The communications student feels it’s important for a local political party to be connected to the city it represents. ‘I love that the CDA isn’t focused on individual interests, but on how we can take care of each other.’ Should Van de Giessen get on the municipal council, she will work on poverty in the city. Fixing the housing crisis is also one of her focal points. ‘We shouldn’t just make sure there is sufficient housing for students; we should also construct more starter homes, to allow students to move on to those, freeing up rooms for new students.’

Van de Giessen says local politics are a way to bring about tangible, visible change. She would advise other young people to engage in politics. ‘So many people around me are angry at politicians. But I’ve experienced that joining a political party means you can actually make a change. That motivates me to try and get a seat on the council.’

Wytze Spoelstra, number six on the electoral list for the VVD (People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy)

When history student Wytze Spoelstra (28) was still in high school, his social studies class organised a class trip to the VVD in the Lower House. It stirred his interest in politics. ‘One faction member noticed me because I was actively participating in the trip and invited me to a party conference. I didn’t end up going to that, but they also told me about their youth branch, the JOVD.’

Still, Spoelstra didn’t become active until he started studying in Groningen and decided to join the JOVD. ‘I’ve always been taught that you are responsible for your own actions and their consequences, and that you have to take others into account. Those values are represented in the JOVD and the VVD.’

The history student has been working as support staff at the VVD since 2015. In late 2016 he became a spokesperson, at first for just the council committee for management and traffic. A year later, he became a spokesperson for the space and housing committee as well. Traffic is still a very important issue for Spoelstra, but he also wants to focus on safety and employment. ‘I think it’s very important for people to walk around safely in clean, well-maintained neighbourhoods, and that there’s work for everyone. This may seem obvious to people, but it takes a lot of work to make that happen.’

He hopes that more students will actively participate in the discussions. ‘Stadjers tend to think of students as just passing through. I think that’s a shame. We’re all in this together for as long as we live here.’ Spoelstra himself certainly isn’t ‘just passing through’. ‘I love it here and I’m never leaving.’

Janet Wieldraaijer, number seven on the list for 100% Groningen

Dutch language and culture student Janet Wieldraaijer (26) is relatively new to politics. Her political engagement started two years ago, when two lesbian friends of hers were beaten up in the city centre. ‘I then wrote an article for the COC, the LGBTI interest group I was involved with. That got picked up by the media, and I came in contact with several Lower House members.’

Marjet Wolthuis, faction chair for 100% Groningen, expressed her support for Wieldraaijer. ‘I started following her and her party and loved her ideology. ‘100% Groningen wants to ensure that the communication between city hall and citizens is as clear as possible.’ When the party, which currently holds one seat on the council, was looking for new candidate council members, she applied.

Because 100% Groningen is such a young party, many of their positions aren’t quite yet set in stone. ‘I actually really enjoy that, because it means the candidate members can come together and decide on the positions ourselves. We all have an equal say. We spent months discussing them every Monday night at city hall’, Wieldraaijer says, laughing.

The student wants to focus on the issues of youth care, poverty, loneliness, and diversity. ‘I have many followers in the LGBTI community and I want to represent them. I can do this by figuring out what’s going in that community and responding to what they need.’ Wieldraaijer’s chances of a seat on the council are relatively small, but she wants to stay politically active by making her voice heard within the party, representing students, the LGBTI community, and recent graduates.