The vacancy for the new mayor of Amsterdam will be reopened because too few suitable candidates have applied, the Provincial Board of Noord-Holland announced, NU.nl reports.
A total of 29 candidates applied in the first application round. Only four of them have a full-time position in government. The confidential committee handling the appointment finds the number of suitable candidates too limited.
The Amsterdam college of mayor and aldermen submitted a proposal to impose a toll on cars in the city center. They believe that making motorists pay to drive through the city center will be an effective measure to reduce traffic in the area, AD reports.
On Friday interim Amsterdam mayor Jozias van Aartsen ordered that a home on De Klencke be locked down for three months following the discovery of large amounts of hard drugs in the home late in March, the Amsterdam municipality announced on Monday.
4.53 kilograms of MDMA, almost 40 thousand euros in cash, a sealing device, packaging materials and a gas gun were found in the home, NU.nl reports.
The parties in Amsterdam's city council have high demands for the city's new mayor. They are looking for someone who "deals wit things with humor and perspective", radiates a vision, and is "accessible and approachable for all sections of Amsterdam society", according to a confidential draft profile drawn up by the party leaders, which the Telegraaf managed to get hold of.
Mayor Wil Houben of Voerendaal was threatened with a firearm two weeks ago, the Public Prosecutor confirmed to NOS after reports in De Limburger.
Houben was driving on the outskirts of the town when a man wearing a balaclava stepped into the road and pointed a gun at him. "It was almost surreal", the mayor said to De Limburger. "Out of nowhere there was someone with a balaclava and a handgun in front of my car holding me at gunpoint. He came closer and closer. Then you know instinctively that something is very wrong. My mind said 'drive', and my body did its job."
Jan Hoekema, husband of recently resigned Senator Marleen Barth, also decided to hand in his resignation. He is stepping down as acting mayor of Langedijk in Noord-Holland, RTL Nieuws reports.
The reason for his resignation is the media commotion that arose around an agreement he made with the municipality of Wassenaar after he retired as mayor of the municipality. Hoekema and Barth arranged that they could stay on in the Wassenaar official mayoral residence at a reduced rent after Hoekema was no longer mayor there.
The mayors of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht and The Hague want the government to hurry up and make a decision on banning firecrackers and firework rockets, Hague mayor Pauline Krikke wrote in a letter on behalf of her colleagues.
The letter is addressed to Minister Ferdinand Grapperhaus of Justice and Security and State Secretary Stientje van Veldhoven of Infrastructure and Water Management, NOS reports.
The Netherlands is too slow in acting against domestic violence, according to mayor Pauline Krikke of The Hague. "Nationwide there are 50 deaths per year due to domestic violence. In every classroom in the Netherlands there is at least one child that has to deal with child abuse or relational violence between parents", she said to the Volkskrant.
The Amsterdam mayor, police and Public Prosecutor are concerned about a seeming shift towards more invisible forms of crime in the Dutch the capital, they said in a report on Monday. With "invisible" crimes they refer to actions that are criminal in nature, but are socially embedded in neighborhoods and often out of the control and sight of the government, ANP reports.
A large proportion of this invisible crime has to do with conflicts in the drug world, according to the Amsterdam triangle. These crimes lead to arms trade, money laundering and assassinations.
A prosecutor from the Noord-Nederland Public Prosecution Service is in hiding due to serious threats made against her. She is investigating outlaw motorcycle club No Surrender, but it is not clear whether the threats came from the club, the Telegraaf reports.
Almost at the same time as this prosecutor, Emmen mayor Bouke Arends also went into hiding due to threats received after he closed a No Surrender club house. According to the Public Prosecutor, the mayor and prosecutor going into hiding does not necessarily mean that No Surrender is behind the threats.
A 64-year-old man arrested on Tuesday for involvement leaking information about the confidential process of appointing a new mayor in Den Bosch, is former alderman Jos van Son, Willem-Peter Kriek of Rosmalen Belang, Van Son's party, confirmed to Brabants Dagblad.
A 64-year-old man from Rosmalen was arrested on Tuesday in an investigation into an information leak from the Den Bosch city council's trust committee that handles the appointment of a new mayor, NU.nl reports.
This suspect does not form part of the trust committee, but did have access to information from the committee. How that is possible, is under investigation. He is suspected of leaking confidential information to newspaper Brabants Dagblad.
Extra security measures will be implemented in the Amsterdam neighborhood where a 17-year-old boy was killed and two others were injured in a shooting at a community center on Friday. Interim mayor Jozias van Aartsen, the police and Public Prosecutor agreed to place a mobile police station in the neighborhood, have more police officers on the street, and install surveillance cameras at a number of strategic locations.
Stefan Huisman suddenly resigned as mayor of the Noord-Brabant municipality of Oosterhout on Friday night. In a short statement he gave two reasons for his resignation - he drank too much at the municipality's year-end function in December, and several statements were made in which he was accused of "boundary crossing behavior".
Of the 35 new mayors appointed in the Netherlands this year, 12 are women - the highest number of women appointed mayor in a year in Dutch history, according to a study by Binnelands Bestuur. The Netherlands now counts 81 female mayors, five more than in 2016.
"With that, we have broken through the glass ceiling", Ruud van Bennekom, secretary of Dutch association of mayors NGB, said to newspaper AD.
Minister Ferdinand Grapperhaus of Justice and Security, Deputy Prime Minister Carola Schouten and acting Amsterdam mayor Jozias van Aartsen attended a Hanukkah celebration on Scheldeplein in Amsterdam's Rivierenbuurt on Sunday evening.
German technology company Siemens is closing its branch in Hengelo, which employs 600 people. The closure forms part of a reorganization in Siemens' energy and gas branch that will cost over 6 thousand jobs worldwide, a spokesperson for the company confirmed to NU.nl.
The staff of the Hengelo branch were informed about what is happening at a meeting at stadium Grolsche Veste on Friday morning. The CEO of the division explained the closure via a video link. Whether there will be any forced redundancies, is not yet clear.
Deputy Amsterdam mayor Kasja Ollongren has an exciting week ahead. Her party the D66 is looking for ministers in the Rutte III cabinet, and Commissioner of the King Johan Remkes is looking for an interim mayor for Amsterdam. And Ollongren is a favorite for both functions, sources tell Het Parool.
One in four politicians in Gelderland faced aggression over the past year, according to a study I & O Research did on behalf of the Province of Gelderland. Among mayors in Gelderland municipalities, 56 percent were faced with aggression, the Gelderlander reports.
The police arrested a member of the Den Bosch city council's trust committee on Tuesday. The 55-year-old man is suspected of involvement in the leak of information about the nomination of a new mayor in the city, AD reports.
Amsterdam mayor Eberhard van der Laan was a guest on Zomergasten on Sunday night, the first extensive interview he gave since he announced that he was diagnosed with metastasized lung cancer early this year. Van der Laan spoke to presenter Janine Abbring about his work, his illness and his city, remarkably getting more emotional when speaking about the city than speaking about his cancer.
Former PvdA parliamentarian Ahmed Marcouch will be the new mayor of Arnhem. The intention is that he will take office on September 1st. The former MP will be succeeding Herman Kaiser, who stepped down on June 1st, NOS reports.
The D66 is renewing its call for Dutch mayors to be chosen in an election. The party is submitting a legislative proposal today that will bring the Netherlands one step closer to mayoral elections, the Telegraaf reports.
Earlier this month State Secretary Klaas Dijkhoff of Security and Justice suggested that mayors keep problem causing asylum seekers under a form of house arrest during the holidays. But forcing asylum seekers to stay inside goes against Dutch law, legal experts from the Center for Public Order and Safety said to broadcaster BNR.
