Last Tuesday about a hundred people joined to reflect on the attacks in Paris. Lody van de Kamp, member of the initiative Salaam-Shalom arranged the meeting. Mayor Eberhard van der Laan held a speech, during which people all held up the peace-sign with their fingers. The Mayor said: “We fight too, but with words. And…
January 10, 2014 Amsterdam’s city council plans to spend 400,000Euros encouraging ethnic minorities to vote in the upcoming local elections. Turnout in local elections is usually 50% and the city council wants to see an increase to 65%. To do this the city is planning a ‘specific approach to target specific groups’, says mayor van der Laan. Some…
October 30 2010 Amsterdam saw several demonstrations around controversial anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders on October 30, 2010. The radical right wing English Defence League travelled to the Netherlands to rally in support of Wilders. While the rally was initially to be held on the central Museumplein, mayor Eberhard van der Laan claimed that he had…
September 8 2010 Intercultural communications advisor Jihad Alariachi faced criticism from Amsterdam’s mayor for her comments supporting the rejection of “religious-type” holidays including birthdays. Alariachi defended a parent making the argument with respect to his children’s school. Van der Laan said that Alariachi may express her personal opinions, but is not to mention her ties…
Controversy over the use of non-Dutch campaign materials for upcoming local elections continues throughout the Netherlands. Radio Netherlands Worldwide this week published an overview of the debate, sparked by posters and brochures published in Arabic, Turkish and Chinese promoting candidates from several parties. The overview juxtaposes comments from integration Minister Eberhard van der Laan stating…
