The Limburg provincial authorities said they felt insufficiently supported by the Provincial Council. King’s Commissioner Theo Bovens (CDA) stated that he was deeply affected by the motion of no confidence that was submitted, even if it was not even put to the vote. “It was there and that does something to you,” said the CDA member. He was also moved by the perception that he himself would be involved in an integrity issue.
The deputies decided earlier Friday afternoon not to wait for the vote of no confidence. As a result of the debate in the Provincial Council, they all resigned at the same time. “The signals are clear to us, we lack confidence,” said Commissioner Andy Dritty. ‘Without that trust it is impossible to continue our work for Limburg and the Limburgers.’
Then Governor Bovens consulted with the presidium, in which all group chairmen are represented. At the end of the afternoon he also announced his resignation: ‘I intend to make my position available, and to remain in office until a successor has been appointed. That leaves room for a new start. ‘
The Provincial Council of Limburg met for the second time on Friday about the Vrehen affair – a week ago on Good Friday, that meeting lasted ten hours. Former commissioner Herman Vrehen came into disrepute as director of landscape manager IKL (Conservation of Small Landscape Elements) because he had given assignments to his own companies with subsidy money. He also received a generous salary of almost 130,000 euros on an annual basis for a part-time (0.7) appointment.
At the end of March, all the Limburg CDA deputies stepped down because of the subsidy affair Ger Koopmans and Hubert Mackus already on. They said they were sorry that they had not supervised the granting of the subsidy sufficiently.
On Friday afternoon, the five remaining commissioners also announced their departure: Joost van den Akker (VVD), Robert Housmans (PVV), Carla Brugman (non-party, ex-GroenLinks), Ruud Burlet (ex-Forum for Democracy, now JA21) and Andy Dritty (partyless). The provincial government of Limburg was a so-called ‘extra-parliamentary body’, in which the members sat more in a personal capacity than as representatives of a political party. They governed on the basis of an outline agreement, and not on the basis of a classic coalition agreement.
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