{"id":85549,"date":"2018-03-23T16:04:23","date_gmt":"2018-03-23T15:04:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=85549"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:22:58","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:22:58","slug":"is-deze-verkiezingsuitslag-wat-rotterdam-nodig-heeft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2018\/03\/23\/is-deze-verkiezingsuitslag-wat-rotterdam-nodig-heeft\/","title":{"rendered":"Are these the results Rotterdam needed?"},"content":{"rendered":"

What do the results of the municipal elections mean for Rotterdam? Criminologist and urban sociologist Gwen van Eijk offers an analysis of the results and the campaign: “One out of four children in Rotterdam still grows up in poverty. Has anyone actually brought this up?\u201d<\/p>\n

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Gwen van Eijk<\/a> is associated with Erasmus School of Law as a criminologist and urban sociologist. Her main areas of research are inequality, segregation, gentrification and people\u2019s perception of safety in an urban context.<\/p>\n

Besides working as an academic researcher, Van Eijk also regularly publishes in the popular media<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\t<\/div>\n

Leefbaar Rotterdam (11 seats) remains the largest party on the Council, followed by VVD, PvdA, D66 and GroenLinks (5 each). Newcomer DENK tallied up 3 seats, while Nida, SP, CDA and PVV each landed 2. Were you surprised by the outcome?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe turnout wasn\u2019t much higher than four years ago. It was 46.8% compared to 45.1% last time. This means that a number of new parties, which people were expecting a lot from \u2013 particularly DENK and PVV \u2013 weren\u2019t able to get stay-at-home voters off the couch. So you could call it a shift more than anything. The fact that Leefbaar Rotterdam lost a few seats \u2013 they had 14 before \u2013 doesn\u2019t come as a surprise. Their votes probably went to PVV and 50PLUS. GroenLinks did well \u2013 in line with Jesse Klaver\u2019s performance nationally. And so did VVD. The main thing that struck me was how small SP has become \u2013 from 5 to 2 seats.\u201d<\/p>\n

SP\u2019s first candidate Leo de Kleijn blames this on the fact that this year\u2019s elections were completely dominated by the identity debate. How do you look back on the recent campaigns?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m worried. Leefbaar Rotterdam in particular waged a relentless, polarising campaign. From the moment that SP, PvdA, GroenLinks and Nida formed their left-wing alliance \u2013 which fell apart later on \u2013 Leefbaar systematically referred to a \u2018left-wing\/Islamist bloc\u2019. Right down to a video insinuating that these four parties were Erdogan\u2019s puppets. At the national level, this kind of scaremongering and hate-mongering against Islam has been going on for some time now \u2013 particularly within PVV \u2013 but Leefbaar definitely took things up a notch. For the past four years, the party had to keep a low profile as a member of the Municipal Executive together with D66 and CDA. But they\u2019ve gone full circle, back to the theme originally launched by Pim Fortuyn. In fact: the tone has become even grimmer. Their message is: \u2018we only represent some Rotterdammers \u2013 not all of them\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t

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\n\t\t\u2018The message of Leefbaar is: \u2018we only represent some Rotterdammers \u2013 not all of them\u2019\n\t<\/blockquote>\n\n\t<\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n

Apparently, this is an appealing message for a quarter of the electorate. What does this say about Rotterdam?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cLeefbaar\u2019s campaign revolves around people no longer feeling at home in their own neighbourhood. For example, this week\u2019s broadcast of Nieuwsuur<\/em> focused on a proposal by Leefbaar\u2019s leading candidate Joost Eerdmans to get more Dutch greengrocers back in the high street. Supposedly, there are too many halal butchers, phone shops and shisha lounges. I\u2019m not saying you don\u2019t see a lot of these shops. I live in Bloemhof, in South Rotterdam, and I agree we have an inordinate number of shopkeepers with a Turkish background. But their shops also have names \u2018Het Kalf\u2019 (\u2018The Calf\u2019) and \u2018Vleescentrum Feijenoord\u2019 (\u2018Feijenoord meat Centre\u2019) and they target a Dutch audience. Leefbaar calls it \u2018Little Ankara\u2019 in their campaign. That kind of rhetoric completely ignores what it\u2019s like in reality<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cRotterdam has basically started to change colour over the past few decades. In the 1960s and \u201970s, it was migrant workers; later on, refugees. But right now, we\u2019re talking about their children and grandchildren. They\u2019re no longer migrants; they\u2019re Dutch citizens \u2013 fellow Rotterdammers. That\u2019s something you\u2019ll have to deal with. There\u2019s no point in simply pretending they don\u2019t belong.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the period 2002-2006 \u2013 Leefbaar\u2019s first stint on the Executive \u2013 the Municipality made work of the drugs problem in Rotterdam and closed the streetwalking zone near Keileweg. In the most recent period \u2013 once again with Leefbaar on board \u2013 we saw the city developing into an attractive tourist destination, as well as recovery in the local housing market. Hasn\u2019t Leefbaar Rotterdam simply done a good job?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThat could be. The question remains, however, how many of these successes can be attributed to one party. Things are looking up for Rotterdam \u2013 but things are going well in a lot of cities. All over the West, you see falling crime rates, a resurgence in the housing market. It\u2019s true, Rotterdam is also reaping the benefits from a worldwide trek towards the cities. The city is hot: there\u2019s a lot more to do, public areas have been cleaned up and festivals are spreading like wildfire.<\/p>\n

\u201cExcept, some people are benefiting less from these trends than others. We see a process of gentrification, in which the city centre and the surrounding districts in particular draw an increasingly wealthy and highly-educated category of resident. As a rule, you don\u2019t find that many Leefbaar voters in this group, however. They\u2019re mainly in the old neighbourhoods and along the periphery, where you notice far less of Rotterdam\u2019s current renaissance. In this sense, the city\u2019s fragile recovery may even lead to even stronger feelings of dissatisfaction within Leefbaar\u2019s constituency.\u201d<\/p>\n

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GroenLinks gained quite a bit \u2013 from 2 to 5 seats. You could see this as a boost for sustainability initiatives in a city that struggles with both a high volume of road traffic and a polluting port. But this barely seems to have played a role in this year\u2019s elections. Why is that?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s strange that the port didn\u2019t play a significant role in this year\u2019s elections. We\u2019re still the largest port in Europe, and we\u2019re up against a number of challenges. Both when it comes to sustainability \u2013 in other words, cutting our carbon emissions \u2013 and to creating opportunities: giving young people the education they need to get a job in the changing port. But there are other themes that should actually be very high on the agenda in Rotterdam, but about which we have heard next to nothing these past few months: education, employment, affordable housing, the increasing gap between rich and poor. One out of four children in Rotterdam still grows up in poverty. Has anyone actually brought this up?\u201d<\/p>\n

A lot was expected of DENK and PVV as the national challengers of local parties Nida and Leefbaar Rotterdam. In Schiedam, DENK earned 11.7% of the votes, making it second only to VVD. In Rotterdam, however, the party stalled at 3 seats, and PVV only scored 2. What went wrong?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cApparently, they failed to mobilise a sizeable new constituency of their own. DENK probably took a number of voters from PvdA and SP: parties that used to be popular choices for people with a migration background and that have presently surrendered a lot of votes. I wouldn\u2019t be surprised if a share of the Leefbaar electorate had preferred to vote PVV, but Wilders isn\u2019t running in Rotterdam. On top of which local PVV departments are often a mess. And they didn\u2019t wage a particularly strong campaign. And let\u2019s be honest: Leefbaar has almost the same programme. PVV wants to close mosques; Leefbaar doesn\u2019t want any new mosques. It\u2019s a question of nuances. I believe Leefbaar does a better job at identifying local issues. By not only focusing on Islam, but also on problems relating to unemployed Eastern Europeans, for example.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\u2018It\u2019s a shame to say, but as a society we aren\u2019t ready yet to allow a party that draws inspiration from Islam to play a significant role\u2019\n\t<\/blockquote>\n\n\t\t\t
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The most obvious coalition to consider \u2013 Leefbaar, VVD, D66 and CDA \u2013 has been shot down beforehand. D66 leader Alexander Pechtold has ruled out collaborations with any parties associated with Forum voor Democratie (Leefbaar Rotterdam, for example). And the left-wing alliance fell apart after a comment by Jesse Klaver. Was it bad news for the local democratic process that this year\u2019s municipals were dominated by national party politics?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIn itself, it\u2019s not a huge problem when national politicians get involved the way they did in these elections. After all, people also vote for a party because it takes clear positions \u2013 and these are clear in part thanks to national debates. Although personally, I feel very disappointed with GroenLinks and with how they called off their participation in the left-wing alliance. Anyone who knows something about politics in Rotterdam knows that Nida isn\u2019t a radical Islamist party, that they don\u2019t have ties with Hamas and that they aren\u2019t controlled behind the scenes by Erdogan. But the whole issue was framed that way. It\u2019s a shame to say, but as a society we aren\u2019t ready yet to allow a party that draws inspiration from Islam to play a significant role.\u201d<\/p>\n

Should we see DENK and Nida as valuable additions to Rotterdam\u2019s political scene?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cCertainly. In fact: I believe they are a necessary part of the emancipation process for a growing group of Rotterdammers with a non-Western background. We will be hearing more and more from this group, and they will become more and more vocal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t

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De redactie<\/h2>\n\t\t\n\t\t
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