The word ‘polarization’ was declared the word of 2024 by Van Dale last month, but the mayors seem to avoid it as much as possible. In total, it occurs seven times in the fifteen New Year’s speeches received, four of which by Mayor Sjors Fröhlich of Vijfheerenlanden. “Polarization is not something that happens to us,” he says. “We do polarization ourselves, we are ourselves.”
Looking each other in the eye and a free flashlight: that’s how the Utrecht New Year’s speeches went
