Did you know you are eligible to vote for the municipal elections when you are an EU-citizen, or when you have lived legally in the Netherlands for at least 5 years? On the 14th, 15th and 16th of March 2022 is your chance to voice how you see the future of Groningen, for example by voting for the PvdA! The Partij van de Arbeid is thé social democratic party of Groningen. This means that we want equal opportunities for everyone in housing, education, work and a sustainable future for Groningen. For example by investing in social and student housing, work for everyone, green energy and poverty reduction. Just a few points from our strong social democratic election manifesto. On this page, we will highlight the most important points from this manifesto for you. If you have any questions left, you can always contact us via [email protected].
To realise as many of our plans as possible, we are already working well together in a coalition with GroenLinks. In the future we want to continue to co-operate with our friends on the left and other progressive parties such as SP and D66. We also work with civil society organisations, trade unions and, of course, the residents of Groningen. Together we can achieve so much more! So join us. For the people in our city and villages. So that everyone feels at home in our beautiful municipality.
If you are convinced after reading about our positions, you can vote for us when you are an EU-citizen, or when you have lived legally in the Netherlands for at least 5 years. Here you can read more about these requirements. If you can vote, you will receive a stempas (polling card) at least 2 weeks before the elections. You must take the polling card, together with proof of your identity to the stembureau (polling station). You will receive the addresses of the polling stations, together with the list of all the candidates at least 4 days before the elections. So much for the practical points, let’s talk about what we are going to do for you in the coming period!
Our plan for Groningen
Housing
Having a roof over your head is a basic human right. Everyone needs a house to live in, but no one needs 560 to speculate with on the housing market. The PvdA is restricting the overheated housing market and is going all in on public housing. Therefore, we will:
- Build six thousand new homes in the next four years. Mainly housingfor young people, social housing (rent up to € 750,-), middenhuur (rent between € 750,- and € 1050,-) and affordable owner-occupied homes;
- Introduce a simple quake desk to assist people with earthquake damage;
- Make a plan together with the inhabitants of the earthquake area to preserve schools, invest in the quality of life and facilities and in making homes more sustainable;
- Introduce buy-out protection to stop investors in their tracks. Homes are for living in, not for making profits.;
- Ensure sufficient and good student housing by building a campus on Zernike, stopping the conversion of rooms into studios, combating discrimination against international students and managing student numbers;
- Start an experiment together with housing corporations to have people with social housing pay no more than 30% of their income on a rental property by applying a rent reduction, and keep prices in the private sector;
- Tackle slumlords by deploying the landlord’s licence, which can be taken from landlords if they misconduct or charge excessive rents, establishing a property brigade to ensure low(er) rents and through the rental support centre;
- Introduce an Overdue Maintenance Report Centre, where people can report abuses in the areas of poor maintenance, mould and leaking roofs so that the municipality can act quickly;
- Creating more places in shelters for the homeless and reducing the number of evictions to zero. We are investing in Housing First in the municipality. We are also working hard to prevent and remedy youth homelessness;
- Oppose the squatting ban. Vacancy due to speculation is unacceptable;
- Establish a Public Sustainability Organisation to make homes more sustainable and build affordable owner-occupied homes;
- Commit to green and safe neighbourhoods, where all income groups live together.
Education and equity
Every child has the right to the best education and equal opportunities. That is the basis for a good and happy life. We believe that where your cradle stands should not determine where you go. Thus, the PvdA wants to tackle inequality of opportunity, therefore we:
- Want additional bridge officers and an extended school day to provide more help to disadvantaged children;
- Encourage venster schools so that children remain in the same building when transferring from childcare and kindergarten to primary school and so that facilities such as youth doctors and youth workers are always close by;
- Continue to refurbish and build new schools, especially in districts where children need it most;
- Focus on broad bridging classes (brugklassen) and several levels in the same building at secondary school, next to mixed schools in mixed neighbourhoods;
- Give financial support for children who need homework support but whose parents cannot afford it;
- Want more opportunities to gain work experience alongside your school or study and sufficient internships;
- Increase opportunities to continue living and working in Groningen after completion of a mbo, hbo or wo programme;
- Create an action plan to combat low literacy and increase digital competences.
Sustainability
The PvdA wants to ensure that Groningen is climate-neutral in 2035. You can’t be green if you’re in the red, so the PvdA stands for a fair energy transition in which everyone can participate. We want to share the benefits and burdens of this. After all, the energy transition also offers great opportunities to reduce burdens and for more jobs and more and finer homes. To make Groningen more sustainable we want to:
- Establish a Public Sustainability Company that will invest in insulating homes and take charge of sustainable energy projects;
- Enable households that don’t have a lot of money to apply for money from an energy transition fund. This will allow them to make their homes more sustainable;
- Generate solar energy on roofs, on industrial premises and through dual-purpose installations in public places;
- Make it easier to separate waste and we want the municipality to invest in good public facilities for separating waste. In doing so, we strive for ever better post-separation;
- Commit to clean and healthy air, to the preservation of nature, to increased biodiversity and restored ecosystems.
Culture and sport
Groningen is brimming with energy and creativity. The PvdA wants to keep it that way and invest in it. We have ambitious plans for giving Groningen’s culture, sports world and student life a positive impulse in the coming years:
- Set up an adult sports and culture fund in addition to the existing youth fund so that people with little money can participate in sports and culture;
- New Groningers also deserve to find a place in our city and villages. Culture can play an important role here. We want the city to support and encourage initiatives that contribute to this;
- Volunteering is a good way to learn the Dutch language in an accessible way. The PvdA wants to help and encourage sports clubs to take in new Groningen residents and help them with the language, integration and building up a network;
- We want the municipality to help young and new artists financially to take the steps to becoming professional artists through talent development;
- If a studio has to leave somewhere, the PvdA wants an alternative to be provided. Moreover, we want there to be enough creative breeding places available in our municipality;
- All newly built sports facilities should be accessible and usable by people with disabilities, and we want to adapt already existing facilities;
- We want to use counsellors who are also active locally in other domains to combat undesirable behaviour in sport. In addition, the PvdA wants to work on an integrated approach with associations, schools, neighbourhood sports coaches and the social domain.
A safe environment
We want to ensure that everyone lives in a pleasant environment. The feeling of safety is important for this. Only when you feel safe do you actually feel free to go where you want and can be themselves. We want to make Groningen a safe space for everyone by:
- Stopping street harassment. Especially women or members of the LGBTQI+ community cannot always walk the streets safely. In collaboration with (social) partners, the municipality will present an ambitious action plan to eliminate sexual and street harassment in the municipality of Groningen;
- Acting quickly against domestic violence, and making the mayor impose a restraining order on the perpetrator if necessary. It is important that victims are immediately brought into contact with assistance;
- More attention to preventing and combating bicycle theft;
- introduce a quality mark against discrimination. This will create an accessible online reporting point where discriminating nightlife venues and associations can be reported. Those who discriminate can lose their operating licence;
- Legalisation of cannabis cultivation;
- Investing in the Nuisance and Care Hotline and in neighbourhood mediation to assist residents who experience nuisance in the neighbourhood, and include this point in the performance agreements with the housing corporations because they play an important role here;
- Generate more attention for Groningen’s slavery past and make keti koti a festive day.
Employment
The PvdA believes that everyone is entitled to suitable work. With security and a decent salary. Work and an income ensure a secure existence, give a sense of independence and offer opportunities for self-development. That is why we want to help more people find work and why we want to offer young and old the prospect of good, honest work. We want to do this by:
- Increasing the amount of basisbanen to 500;
- Raising the minimum wage to 14 euros. We want the municipality to do its utmost to make that 14 euros the standard within its own organisation and assignments;
- Providing a fair remuneration for internships and traineeships and demand the same from the partners with whom we do business;
- Allowing people on welfare to earn an extra 500 euros a month, so that they can get used to work and increase their chances of getting a job;
- Assisting more people into suitable work;
- Reducing the number of flex contracts and temporary workers;
- Striving for diversity and fight labour market discrimination, together with the business community
- Establishing a training fund to give people with an education for which there is little work the opportunity to find a suitable job through internships and further training.
Poverty
Everyone is entitled to a decent existence, but too many Groningers live in poverty. For the PvdA, it is therefore extremely important to focus on the security of existence with sufficient income and to ensure that everyone can participate as much as possible by:
- Going towards a solution-oriented debt relief programme
- Making contraception and menstrual products accessible to all;
- Tackling energy poverty and making homes more sustainable for people with little money
- Abolish the cost-sharing standard for young people between 21 and 27. This standard means that a family’s social security payments are reduced when children reach the age of 21. As a result, parents have less money to spend and are unable to support their children.
- Commit to poverty alleviation by, among other things, expanding the remission schemes, special assistance, the Multiple Expense Scheme and the Stadjers Pass;
Care and welfare
Groningen is a social municipality in which we look out for each other. The PvdA stands for loving care close at hand and a helping hand when you need it. And under the motto ‘prevention is better than cure’, we invest more in welfare. We do this by:
- Preventing overburdening of informal carers;
- Letting healthcare professionals look at people’s personal circumstances in order to provide customised services, paying special attention to children’s right to leisure and recreation;
- Building more life-proof homes in which living and care can be well combined, so that people can grow old with peace of mind;
- Ensuring that there are no waiting lists in youth care (jeugdzorg) and fighting for an adequate budget;
- Reducing market forces and increasing high-quality care and cooperation through public organisation of municipal care tasks instead of tenders;
- Making life coaches available for young people of 18 years and older that cannot always live independently;
- Simplifying application procedures for obtaining care.
Mobility and public space
Being able to move around is a basic freedom. That is why we want a municipality where you can get on a train or bus close to home. A municipality with more space for pedestrians and cyclists. And we ask for extra attention for the accessibility of our footpaths and of buildings for people with a functional disability. We make Groningen healthier and more sustainable and accessible through:
- Improving existing cycle routes and through-cycling routes, by widening and redesigning them, next to improving the accessibility of pavements;
- More bicycle parking places and bicycle stewards;
- Investing in the connection with other parts of the Netherlands and Northern Germany through the Lely Line for a fast connection with the Randstad, the Wunderline and the Nedersaksen Line;
- Better sustainable connection to Zernike;
- Ensuring that there are enough, clean, accessible and visible public toilets;
- Making all buildings of the municipality itself optimally accessible, and reach firm agreements with educational institutions and the businesses on making public buildings accessible to people with disabilities.
