Advice informer: party Jos van Rey in coalition Roermond

Jos van Rey’s party, the Liberal People’s Party Roermond (LVR), may enter the governing coalition of Roermond after eight years of exclusion. Informateur Dirk Franssen proposed a lecture tonight with LVR, GroenLinks, CDA and VVD, good for 21 of the 31 council seats.

Former alderman Van Rey was arrested in 2017 after a long-drawn-out case convicted for corruption and electoral fraud. He was given a suspended prison sentence and banned from holding public office for two years. Because of the suspicions and final conviction refused the other major parties in Roermond for years to form a coalition with LVR.

In the last municipal elections, LVR . rose from nine to eleven seats and thus remained the largest party. On behalf of the LVR, Dirk Franssen, as an informant, went in search of possibilities for forming a coalition. He presented his findings tonight in the town hall. “This composition has the best prospect of a successful and stable coalition.”

Clean slate

The LVR reacts positively. “For us as LVR there is no greater gesture than to put the past eight years behind us and start with a clean slate. Without exclusions. We are prepared to step over everything and look to the future together,” said LVR councilor Aijiththan Loganathan. It is still unclear whether Van Rey will become a candidate alderman, reports 1Limburg.

GroenLinks and VVD also announced that they would like to participate in the formation, although the informateur’s proposal came as a surprise to GroenLinks. “We assume that the informateur has made the right decision,” said GL councilor Marianne Smitsmans. VVD councilor Vincent Zwijnenberg thinks it is high time “to draw a line under the past”.

The proposal also caused some surprise at the CDA. The party said it still had some questions that the informant should answer. “Only when those questions have been answered can we indicate whether we will enter the formation round with the combination you propose,” said CDA councilor Angely Waajen.

The PvdA wonders whether there is enough trust between the four proposed parties to be able to work well together. “Tonight it seemed like a surprise partyeveryone is very surprised,” said councilor Lynn Rulkens.

The LVR also successfully participated in the council elections in Roermond in 2014 and 2018. Both times the party was not involved in coalition building. For the other parties, the past of LVR leader Jos van Rey was insurmountable.

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