Mayor of The Hague Pauline Krikke.
THE HAGUE--A week of scandal in The Hague has led the Dutch city’s mayor to tender her resignation on Sunday. Pauline Krikke of conservative party VVD, was appointed to the job and first took office on March 17, 2017, and previously spent twelve years as the mayor of Arnhem and seven years on Amsterdam’s city council
However, 14 years of mayoral experience was not enough to weather the storm that hit the world of local politics in the capital of Zuid-Holland province.
“It is difficult for me, but I wanted to be the first to tell you, the residents of The Hague: I have just offered my immediate resignation to the King’s Commissioner,” Krikke said on Sunday in a video message.
The problems started on October 1 when authorities revealed they had raided the homes and offices of two The Hague aldermen, a city councillor, and three entrepreneurs. They were the focus of an investigation into allegations that nightclub and catering permits were being arranged for people who paid bribes.
All the politicians under suspicion come from the largest political faction in The Hague city council, Group de Mos/Heart for The Hague, including the party’s namesake Richard de Mos.
The faction led a four-party ruling coalition which fell apart later in the week because of the scandal, even though De Mos and aldermanic colleague Rachid Guernaoui said they would temporarily step down at Krikke’s insistence.
“The commotion about their performance, whether justified or not, forms a serious obstacle to the continuity of future-focused thinking and actions of both the directors and the officials,” Krikke said in her statement to the public on Sunday.
“Anyone who attended the special crisis meeting of the city council on this subject last Wednesday was able to witness its crippling impact on constructive thinking and debate, which originates from all sorts of insinuations and reproaches stacking ‘new injuries’ upon ‘old wounds,’” the mayor said.
Krikke noted that her own performance was called into question, and the entire situation made it difficult for the city council’s executive board comprising of the mayor and alderpersons to work with the independent city council.
The political corruption scandal was followed by a blistering report from the Dutch Safety Board about the city’s handling of a massive bonfire in Scheveningen last New Year’s Eve that caused several other fires and evacuations there.
The report said that no adequate precautions were enforced by the city even after similar incidents occurred a year earlier on a smaller scale.
The bonfire of 10 months ago reached at least 45 meters high, 10 more than organizers had promised they would be, and the wood pallets used for the fire were ignited with barrels of diesel fuel. This led to a massive blaze causing intense air pressure that sent flaming pieces of wood flying into the wind early on New Year’s Day, causing dozens of fires to homes and vehicles, but no injuries.
The Hague officials said they felt threatened by organisers, which was one reason they did not shut the event down when commitments were not upheld.
Still, Krikke’s performance leading up to and following the New Year’s incident was set to be a topic of continued arguing in city hall, as even Krikke herself said weeks later that she believed the situation to have been handled safely.
“The debate about my future stands in the way of the debate about the future of The Hague,” Krikke said. “I cannot do something differently from what I have asked from my alderpersons, namely, not to interfere with the progress of thought and function in The Hague. I served as mayor of The Hague with my heart and soul,” she concluded.
Krikke, who was The Hague’s first female mayor, announced her decision on social media platform Instagram.
