JA21, the second largest opposition party, approached growth from a different perspective. Party chairman Wouter Weijers prefers not to see the expected population growth in the coming years as an established fact. “Suppose we are going to scale down 36 percent. Then Utrecht will be home to roughly 1 million inhabitants. In short, shrinking because of quality.” Weijers was immediately attacked from left to right for this view, because what does that mean in practice? “Who are you going to chase away from the province then?”, André van Schie of the VVD asked. There was no answer to this, but Weijers mainly wanted to outline that “the growth obsession must be reduced”.
Province debates budget: ‘There are limits to growth’
