Split-off BBB States members switch to Lokaal Brabant

Ex-BBB Staten members Angela Kuiper and Wilfred Lauwen are switching to coalition party Lokaal Brabant. This is stated in a press release from Lokaal Brabant. Last Monday, the two announced that they were leaving the opposition party BBB. The two announced that they will keep their seats, which they will now take with them to Lokaal Brabant.

“We have gone through the programs of the various parties and looked at which party suits us best. Local Brabant emerged as the best in this process,” Angela Kuiper writes in a press release.

With the arrival of Kuiper and Lauwen, the Lokaal Brabant faction doubles from two to four seats. This means that the coalition will soon have 30 seats and its majority in the Provincial Council will become even wider.

According to Wilfred Lauwen, the ‘soured mutual relations’ in the BBB faction played a major role in the departure. “You simply expect more from a party of this size,” he says in response to his switch. For Lauwen and Kuiper it was also too often about farmers. “We were really chosen for the second B, that of citizen,” says Lauwen. “We’ve had enough small talk, now we really want to get down to business.”

With their arrival in Lokaal Brabant, the two also embrace the coalition agreement. Yet they do not have to change their opinion. “Even when we were still with BBB, we already agreed with the coalition’s agreement.”

Part of this is the much-discussed deadline for stable adjustments. BBB wants that off the table, but surprisingly enough, Kuiper and Lauwen do not have to. “There needs to be clarity, especially for young farmers. BBB is not going to provide that clarity.”

Angry at BBB
Lauwen is also still not happy with the action of his old faction chairman John Frenken. The party independently broke the news of the split. “While we had agreed to do that together,” says Lauwen irritated. “I’m not going to waste any more words on it, because you shouldn’t reward such an action.”

This is what the distribution of seats in the Provincial Council now looks like

Coalition