Over 1,000 people attend Amsterdam mayor Van der Laan's funeral

By Janene Pieters on October 16, 2017 - 16:10
Amsterdam mayor Eberhard van der Laan's last order to his people on the Concertgebouw, where thousands gathered to say their last goodbyes to him, 13 Oct 2017
Amsterdam mayor Eberhard van der Laan's last order to his people on the Concertgebouw, where thousands gathered to say their last goodbyes to him, 13 Oct 2017Photo: @AmsterdanNL / Twitter

Over a thousand people attended Amsterdam mayor Eberhard van der Laan's funeral in the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam on Saturday afternoon, including Prime Minister Mark Rutte and historian Geert Mak, AD reports. Amsterdam residents said their final goodbyes to the mayor on Friday.

Prime Minister Rutte was one of those who spoke at the funeral. He remembered Van der Laan as a unique person who "spoke right from the heart". "There is no one who the word 'sweet' described better", Rutte said, according to the newspaper. "In Eberhard the person and function came together in a way you rarely see."

The service started at 1:00 p.m. Ten minutes before that, all the bells in Amsterdam sounded. At 1:00 p.m. exactly, public transit in the Dutch capital came to a standstill. All trams, buses, subways and ferries in Amsterdam stood still for one minute long, to pay tribute to the mayor. In the entire Netherlands, flags on government buildings hung at half mast on Saturday. 

Eberhard van der Laan died on October 5th after a months long struggle with metastasized lung cancer. He was 62. 

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