Unity regardless of ethnicity: Rotterdam Night Mayor's appeal

Jules Deelder, the Night Mayor of Rotterdam, turned 70 and was allowed to be the Day Mayor of Rotterdam for eight hours. He was installed in the Rotterdam council chamber shortly after celebrating his birthday. In his inaugural speech he appealed for more unity among all residents, whatever nationality. "We are all mortal - although in my case, I still have to see - and that is what make us equal. For Rotterdam residents this applies, and nothing about Turkish, Moroccan or Dutch: there is only one world and it is for all of us." He said in his speech. As mayor with a super short tenure, Deelder took ample time to vent his praise and his worries about his city. He is against the multicultural divide and the up scaling to a Dutch mega city with Amsterdam and Rotterdam as districts. He is for the release of the opening hours in the hospitality industry and the lifting of regulations for any drug. There was a Deelder-motion under the motto: "What does it matter dude". The college was invited to "let things, you know, run its course a bit more". After the council meeting Deelder said: "There's a lot of good in Rotterdam despite the board, not thanks to it." Deelder has long been known as Night Mayor of Rotterdam. The title did not come from a writer or poet, but from a local bike shop, when formal Mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb saw Deelder come by in one of his dark suits. Aboutaleb stressed the importance of the poet/writer/promoter as the the decades long disinterested promoter of his beloved city. "He expresses the directness of the Rotterdam locals. Sanded and planed, to its essence, to the bone." Aboutaleb observed.