The position became open around the time Van Mastrigt left as acting mayor in Olst-Wijhe. “So I thought: I’ll just take the plunge and try it. That led to the phone call last night, which I’m very happy about.”
She has already held various administrative positions, went from Rotterdam to Groningen and ended up in Utrecht, among other places. But she says she has had an eye on Middelburg for years. “Middelburg, together with other municipalities, once organized the VNG conference. That was my first conscious introduction and then I thought ‘oh what a beautiful city that is’.”
She came back again, wandered around the city and talked to people. From then on she thought: if there is another position there…
And that was the case now. Van Mastrigt went for it and wrote a letter. “And then you hear that you are one of the 34 and you think: ‘yes, what chance do you have?’.” That made it extra special when she heard the news last night.
“My greatest ambition is to get to know people,” she says. “Government is done with and among the people.” She wants to know what concerns them, how they approach life, what their dreams and concerns are. “So that you also get to know the heartbeat of the municipality.”
She hopes to do that secretly in the coming weeks. “I saw some unfortunate pictures of myself in the media.” That’s a blessing in disguise for her, because it means she won’t be recognized so quickly and she can still “move through Middelburg in cognito and have a chat with people.”
The work will start in August and she wants to be wherever the Middelburgers are.
Tags: mayor Middelburg heartbeat municipality
