Election campaign Oudewater started: ‘It has really erupted now’

“Yes, it’s going great”, says Gijs Hoogenboom (VVD) while gluing. “The trick is: under the poster and over it.” List leader of The Independents, René van den Hoogen, is also looking forward to it. He says: “The elections have really exploded. At 7 am we were already active with the whole party.”

In no time at all, it will be plastered over the first election board in the municipality. A few more follow and after that all politicians go to the old town hall in Oudewater. There, children from groups 7 and 8 of primary school St. Jozef are taught about local democracy. “Young learn is out,” explains the mayor. “I hope all these students go to their parents about being cared for and say: go vote, because that’s important.”

After an hour of explanation about what the city council does exactly, what the role of the mayor and the aldermen is, the potential voters now also realize that it is quite important, those municipal elections. Jayson: “I now understand how the city council works, I didn’t understand much about it before. “I thought much less was happening at the municipality, but a lot more is actually happening. There’s a lot more work involved than I thought,” says 11-year-old Gwen.

In between, the students are allowed to vote on political topics and positions, but the actual voting will have to take years. Still the question: which party would you choose now. “I don’t know yet, I really don’t,” Gwen says. Jayson is a bit more certain: “ChristenUnie. But I’m not sure yet. That man from the CU is very active. And he has good ideas.”

Luckily for Gwen and Jayson, they get to think about it for a while. In any case, they already know how the city council works.