During the extra council meeting of the municipality of Alkmaar about the reception of asylum seekers, a motion of no confidence was passed against the aldermen of coalition parties GroenLinks and PvdA. Reason: the parties deliberately did not involve coalition members VVD, CDA and D66 in the application for this extra council meeting.
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The meeting, which started at 8 p.m., was kicked off with the question why initiators PvdA and GroenLinks did not approach parties other than ChristenUnie, Party for the Animals and Liveable Alkmaar about requesting the extra council meeting.
PvdA member Gijsbert van Iterson Scholten responded to this: “Given the urgency of the situation, we have decided to do it this way. There is no time to argue, it is time for action.”
John van der Rhee (VVD) was not satisfied with this and asked Ema Najetovic of GroenLinks directly whether the parties had deliberately left the coalition members out of the initiative. To this, Najetovic replied that this was indeed the case. The meeting was then adjourned for ten minutes.
Motion adopted
After the suspension, the vote of no confidence was passed. It states that “the lack of confidence in cooperation with the council factions of GroenLinks and PvdA leads to the loss of confidence in the representatives of these parties in the council”. These are GroenLinks alderman Christian Braak and PvdA alderman Paul Verbruggen.
CDA, VVD, OPA, D66 and SeniorenPartij Alkmaar are in favor of the motion of no confidence. Although Leefbaar Alkmaar, ChristenUnie, Party for the Animals, GroenLinks and PvdA vote against the motion, the parties that vote in favor of the motion are in the majority. This means that the motion has been passed.
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What does this mean?
The majority of councilors indicate that their trust in councilors Christian Braak (GroenLinks) and Paul Verbruggen (PvdA) has been seriously damaged. It is not yet clear what consequences this will have. A motion of no confidence is usually interpreted as an encouragement to the aldermen to resign their position. However, this is not a formal obligation. The stakeholders will meet tomorrow at 9:30 am to discuss how to proceed.
After the motion of no confidence was passed, it was decided to adjourn the meeting. The subject of the meeting, reception of asylum seekers, will be discussed at a later date.
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Shortage of shelter places
Outgoing State Secretary Ankie Broekers-Knol and outgoing Minister Kajsa Ollongren previously announced in a letter to the House of Representatives that the Netherlands, partly due to the evacuees from Afghanistan, is expected to have no more reception places available for asylum seekers within a few weeks.
That is why the cabinet has appealed to the boards of provinces and municipalities to create more reception places for asylum seekers. This is what the city council would be discussing tonight.
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