Rotterdam council bids Mayor Aboutaleb farewell with Netflix voucher, yoga mat

“It was an honor,” Ahmed Aboutaleb said at his last City Council meeting as the mayor of Rotterdam. The City Council bid him farewell with speeches and a retirement survival kit consisting of a cycling map of the Netherlands, a yoga mat, a Netflix voucher, a cookbook, and gardening gloves. Various other mayors attended the hearing on his retirement, as did Aboutaleb’s wife and daughter, Rijnmond reports.

Theo Coskun was the first to address Aboutaleb. He is the longest-serving council member in Rotterdam, and was on the committee that selected Aboutaleb from 25 mayoral applicants 15 years ago. “We were looking for the best mayor for Rotterdam, and you became the best mayor in the world,” Coskun said. He presented the survival kit to Aboutaleb on behalf of the City Council.

The Hague Mayor Jan van Zanen also spoke. He and Aboutaleb go way back, becoming aldermen at about the same time and then encountering each other as mayors in the G4 from 2014 onwards. He praised Aboutaleb’s efforts for the Rotterdam - The Hague metropolitan region.

Deputy Mayor Said Kasmi spoke on behalf of the Rotterdam office of mayor and aldermen. “You are one of the best-known mayors in the Netherlands. That is due to your hard work," he said.

"You have appeared on radio and TV countless times to draw attention to Rotterdam’s interests.” Kasmi presented Aboutaleb with “the highest award we can give” - the Johan van Oldenbarnevelt Medal.

“Everything comes to an end,” Aboutaleb said in his final address to the City Council as mayor. “Rotterdam is the world in miniature. A city that really feels like a city, with residents and entrepreneurs from all over the world.”

“For me, it’s over,” Aboutaleb said. “It was an honor. The office of mayor is, after my family, the best thing that ever happened to me.”

He ended his speech in his Rotterdam accent: “It was good, and now get lost.”