Dissatisfaction at Security Council because of government turn over mouth masks policy | NOW

The mayors of the Security Council are dissatisfied with the sudden turn that the cabinet made last week with regard to the face masks policy. This became clear on Monday evening after the meeting between the presidents of the 25 security regions.

“It is of course quite annoying when you agree on a line and things go differently through a debate in the House,” said Henri Lenferink, who replaced Hubert Bruls as chairman of the Security Council.

Lenferink, mayor of Leiden, referred to Monday last week, when the mayors were informed about the measures that the cabinet was going to announce in the evening. The cabinet’s mouth caps policy was also discussed at the time.

The mayors and the cabinet agreed that in a large part of the Randstad and the Eindhoven region it would be urgent to wear face masks in public indoor spaces.

Two days later, Prime Minister Mark Rutte said during a parliamentary debate that there is an urgent advice for the entire country to wear face masks in public indoor spaces.

‘Understand that there is dissatisfaction about it’

The fact that the cabinet made that turn so quickly shot several mayors in the wrong direction, certainly also because this had happened without consultation with the Security Council.

“There are colleagues who have defended that in front of regional media, only to be told that it must be something else again. That is not so easy. So I understand that there is dissatisfaction about it,” said Lenferink.

According to the mayor of Leiden, there was talk on Monday evening about “tighter organization of the structure of how you deal with each other”. According to him, this should prevent all kinds of “ad hoc measures” from being taken.

Mayors need a ‘clear line’

Prior to the Safety Meeting, mayors Pieter Broertjes (Hilversum) and Jan Lonink (Terneuzen), among others, were very critical of the “mouth masks advice”. They argue for a duty to mask masks instead of urgent advice. “We need a clear guideline,” says Lonink.

Marianne Schuurmans (Haarlemmermeer) and René Verhulst (Ede) also think that there should be clearer communication about the advice to wear mouth masks.

Additional measures will not be taken in the coming days, according to Lenferink. “This weekend is the first moment when you can see whether something of a change is visible and whether that should lead to new measures. It may be that new measures will be taken after the weekend, it may also be not. It depends. what we perceive in the numbers. “

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