Groningen mayor steps down early; Exhausted from dealing with Ter Apel, gas extraction

Koen Schuiling is stepping down as mayor of Groningen a year before the end of his term. In his letter of resignation to the king, he said he didn’t have the necessary energy to continue after an “exceptionally intensive period,” referring specifically to the asylum shelter crisis in Ter Apel and gas extraction and related problems.

“Reflecting on the past years, I must conclude that I no longer have the necessary energy to work on these tasks with full dedication,” the 65-year-old VVD mayor said. “Ultimately it was mainly the situation in Ter Apel and the handling of gas extraction that really affected me.

Schuiling said that something has broken in him due to the unwillingness of some to accommodate or help asylum seekers. The asylum registration center in Ter Apel has been severely overcrowded for around two years. And there is no prospect of relief, especially with the new Cabinet - which includes his own party - planning to scrap the asylum distribution law. The law by former VVD State Secretary Eric van der Burg forced municipalities to take in their fair share of asylum seekers.

The “initial reluctance to do what was necessary for the people of Groningen” after years of gas extraction earthquakes devastated their homes and infrastructure also played a role. “It broke something in me that will not easily be repaired,” the mayor said.

The coronavirus pandemic also made his work as mayor more taxing, Schuiling said. “As regional mayor and chairman of the Veiligheidsregio Groningen, such great demands were made on me during the coronavirus crisis that there was little time left to be ‘just’ mayor.”

Schuiling’s last working day will be on October 23. “This is an extremely difficult decision for me, which weighs heavily on my mind,” he wrote in his letter of resignation to the king. But he simply does not have the energy left to be “the mayor that Groningers need and Groningen deserves.”