This afternoon, the brand new mayor Femke Halsema will take over the previous official mayor, Eberhard van der Laan, who sadly passed away back in October. Since December, Jozias van Aaartsen has been acting mayor for Amsterdam. Today she will take over this role and it will be made official at a ceremony this evening at 5 pm. In this ceremony, the King’s Commissioner, Johan Remkes, will swear her in. The ceremony will be shown live at AT5.
Femke Halsema appointed as mayor of Amsterdam
In June, Femke Halsema was appointed by the city council to be Amsterdam’s mayor. She will be the first GroenLinks AND female mayor of Amsterdam, so it’s a pretty historic day for Amsterdam. The vacancy was actually open twice, as there was barely anybody who had enough administrative experience applying, which is, of course, necessary for this role. This caused a slight issue when it was rumoured that there was a bit of resistance in the Amsterdam city council, as they felt that she may lack the experience needed and was a bit too much of a leftist – even for Amsterdam standards. Well now, the day is here and she will be officially appointed. Hey, we all know people that have got the job without the experience!
Hopefully, she will prove to be a great new mayor for Amsterdam.
Will you be watching the ceremony? Let us know in the comments! Also, don’t forget to join our DutchReview Facebook group while you’re here. C’mon, you know you wanna!
