Leefbaar Rotterdam

PVV leader Geert Wilders fired Géza Hegedüs as faction leader in Rotterdam on Friday after it was revealed that he expressed support for Holocaust denier David Irving in 2014. This happened just one day after Wilders announced Hegedüs' appointment, overshadowing the PVV's participation in the municipal elections in Rotterdam.

The Rotterdam coalition of Leefbaar Rotterdam, CDA and D66 no longer has the support of a majority of city councilors as councilor Mohammed Anfal switched from Leefbaar to Islam inspired party NIDA. Party leader Nourdin el Ouali announced the switch to NRC on Monday evening. The city council will discuss the consequences of the switch in an emergency debate on Thursday. Mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb is meeting party leaders to talk about it today, according to AD.

Rotterdam launched a campaign against forced marriages on Wednesday. The campaign consists of a number of posters of all kinds of people kissing, with a simple message: In the Netherlands you choose your own partner. 

Leefbaar Rotterdam alderman Ronald Schneider hung the first poster on Wednesday. "I live in Rotterdam-Zuid, where I sometimes see couples secretly holding hands against the quay wall", he said to RTV Rijnmond. "This is the Netherlands in 2017. It can not be that a girl and a boy of around 20 should still secretly hold each others and?"

On Sunday night the police removed large posters showing Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan from the facade of a building in Rotterdam. A police spokespersons stated that the posters were removed at the request of Mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb after information was received that public order may be compromised, NU.nl reports. 

A debate in Rotterdam on the arrest of French terrorist suspect Anis B. in the city devolved into a shouting match on Thursday. The debate had to be paused after a Leefbaar Rotterdam councilor Bart-Joost van Rij threatened to rip GroenLinks councilor Arno Bonte's head off

The Rotterdam-Zuid community center De Put has denied Islamic-movement Hizb ut-Tahrir permission to give a lecture on Friday.

Leefbaar Rotterdam is advocating for forced contraception for women who should better not have children due to their addiction, mental illness or mental disability.

Rotterdam's municipal ombudsman, Anne Mieke Zwaneveld published a report today, illuminating the number of problems in the city's social services. She states that in 20 percent of cases, the term for requesting benefits are exceeded, 30 percent of phone calls aren't answered and 20 percent of clients are not called back, the Algemeen Dagblad reports.

Rotterdam's plans for a Container Town where the city's asocial families will be placed is meant to serve as a harmless solution to a nuisance problem. According to experts, however, such 'aso-villages' won't solve anything.

The next Rotterdam city council will be governed by a coalition of D66, CDA and nationalist party Leefbaar Rotterdam. It marks the first time Leefbaar Rotterdam has been a coalition member since the murder of popular party founder Pim Fortuyn twelve years ago.

"Vote for change tomorrow! Vote Leefbaar Rotterdam!" says an ad that appeared on the front page of the Rotterdam edition of the 'Metro' today. The ad was placed by mistake, calling people to cast their votes for Leefbaar Rotterdam on Thursday, March 20, instead of today.