Former alderman and ex-minister Asscher (PvdA) scout Amsterdam
Former PvdA leader, former deputy prime minister and ex-alderman in Amsterdam Lodewijk Asscher will look in the capital from Monday to form a coalition together. He is appointed as a scout. PvdA party leader Marjolein Moorman has asked Asscher.
In the capital, 95 percent of the votes were counted on Thursday evening. The PvdA has 9 seats, 1 more than the number two GroenLinks, which now has 8. In Amsterdam there are 45 seats in the city council.
The PvdA announced on Thursday that it would now take the initiative in the negotiations for a new coalition. Moorman thinks Asscher is the “ideal person” to do that first exploration. She in a press release that he knows the city and Amsterdam politics well and that he has a lot of administrative experience. According to the report, he will talk to the mayor and all twelve political groups early next week. He will report on this before next Thursday, that is the aim.
Asscher was alderman in the capital from 2006-2012. He was Minister of Social Affairs and Employment between 2012 and 2017. At the beginning of last year he left as party leader of the PvdA because of his role in the allowance affair.
On Twitter he calls himself “quartermaster, booster, scout”. Just this week it was announced that he will be working as a consultant at the Amsterdam consultancy Van de Bunt Adviseurs. This company helps organizations in areas such as strategy and management. Asscher will focus on “complex social matters” at the consultancy and he will become a member of the board.
Asscher was already working as an independent expert and was appointed last year by the municipality of Heerlen to help tackle problems and deprivation in neighbourhoods.