Student on the ballot: Lili wants to take down slumlords, poverty and the establishment

“I name and shame the people who lie about their policies and the parties that are in power. If they had wanted to tackle the problems, they could already have done so”, says Lili Laki, candidate for the SP. She is one of the students running for the municipal council elections in Rotterdam.

What would you like to have achieved in the municipal council after four years?

“I would like to tackle all the slumlords. They get off too easily under the liberal VVD policies by squeezing tenants or leaving properties empty, especially with the support of D66, DENK and Leefbaar. Neo-liberals benefit from vacancy. Not only many homes but also commercial premises are empty. Above the Lijnbaan, for example. That makes it harder for competitors to find a place and prices go up. I’m for a vibrant business sector and against vacancy.”

Under the headline ‘Lili Laki van de SP maakt raadsleden KAPOT‘ (Lili Laki destroys council members) you have over 130,000 views on Instagram. In it you are fierce and you also get personal. What makes you choose this fierce tone?

“There is enough to be angry and fierce about. So much that I think people miss that tone across the whole left and certainly at the SP. Jimmy Dijk from the national SP is also nicely fierce. And yes, I name and shame the people who lie about their policy and the parties that are in power. If they had wanted to tackle the problems, they could already have done so.

“People appreciate that I’m feisty, my DMs are full of messages. Sometimes people compare me to Renske Leijten, she sat in the House of Representatives for the SP for years, and I think that’s a really sickly good compliment. I’ve always been like this. At primary school I was already told I could be a bit calmer. Well, don’t call me then. It means a lot to me to be able to be myself like this. Before debates I like to listen to Limp Bizkit and Rage Against the Machine to pep myself up. To calm down, I listen to the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

“The compliments motivate me a lot. Let me be angry for people who don’t have the energy for it. I also see comments like: ‘I’m left-wing, but I find this tone really too arrogant.’ The SP is an opposition party, the left is often accused of not being fierce enough and has trouble winning elections. If you don’t agree with the other parties and you cannot govern, then you must not abandon your ideals. Then it’s time for hard opposition, not for a career of butt-kissing.”

What would it mean to you if you made history by becoming the youngest woman ever in the Rotterdam council?

“That would be crazy. To be allowed to stand, at such a young age, in a row of iconic Rotterdam women would be a dream. My parents fled from Serbia and Hungary thirty years ago and then I, as someone who grew up in poverty, would be making history twenty years later. I try not to pin too much hope on it, because I’ll need preference votes to get into the council. But it could happen.”

What has made you angry lately, looking at Rotterdam politics?

“Mostly the lying by politicians. Maybe I’m young, not yet stuck in that political bubble and so I don’t yet know how to lie. But when I see videos from, for example, Leefbaar Rotterdam about vacancy, I think: why then did you vote against all our proposals to tackle that vacancy? The SP submitted a motion on 13 November to introduce a vacancy tax for homes that have been empty for more than two years. Leefbaar voted against that motion. Then I think: how dare you fool people by saying you want to tackle it. You had the chance and you didn’t take it.”

What is your dream for the future of Rotterdam?

“In that dream the SP has five seats and we are in a very left coalition. There is no more vacancy and business is circular. The city is much greener. No child grows up in poverty anymore, because the money goes to fighting poverty and not to things like defence and bombs. Rotterdam is a city people come to and want to stay in, no one is driven out of the city.”