Ex-mayor wants job back after reflection on sexual indiscretion

After a year of reflecting on his sexual indiscretion, former Maastricht mayor Onno Hoes is ready to get back in the politics game. He wants to be mayor again, Hoes said on the RTL Z program Van Liempt Live on Monday. Hoes resigned as mayor of Maastricht following a commotion about his love life with young men. He blames himself for being so naive about his private life. He used the past six months to reflect on everything that happened around his resignation as mayor. "I've had time to consider the matter. Asked myself many questions. What actually happened? What went wrong? And who am I really?" According to Hoes, the decisive reason he stepped down as mayor was because he felt that the municipal organization needed a rest. "In order to return the peace, I had to take a back seat. The importance of the organization and the community outweighed my personal interest." He added that he was very angry after his resignation. "At the people around me, but especially at myself. But the group of people I was angry at, became increasingly smaller. And at one point I was not angry anymore." And after six months of taking it easy, Hoes is ready for being a mayor again. "I initially ruled out public office for myself. But by the end of last year I thought: come on, mayor is actually an awfully nice job. You did it well", he said on the program, but refused to comment on cities he has in mind. "All kinds of municipalities can be interesting. But the city has to fit my profile."