Hilversum councilor resigns after publication about interest in moving to Russia | Domestic

Two weeks ago, this site published a big story about dozens of Dutch people who are considering emigration to Russia or Belarus. These potential emigrants attended two meetings (in October and December) of the Russia and Eastern Europe Academy in Arnhem. There they were informed about the possibilities and obstacles of a move. An advisor present, who is also an employee of Forum for Democracy in the province of Flevoland, could help with obtaining visas.

According to the organizer of the meetings, a councilor from a Dutch city was also present there ‘who was completely fed up with the Netherlands’ and had already stood at the border with Belarus to see what things were like there. That person turned out to be Karin Walters, Hilversum councilor for the local party Hart voor Hilversum.

Walters initially denied to this site that she was present at an emigration meeting in Arnhem. She also stated that she had not been to Belarus, but only on holiday in neighboring Poland. Today, after her resignation, she confirmed by telephone that she had indeed attended the meeting in Arnhem. “But that had nothing to do with political views. I was there privately, we just wanted information about small-scale organic farming.” She writes to the municipal council, according to the Gooi and Eemlander: ‘Organic farming is becoming increasingly difficult in Europe, but apparently it is impossible to explore whether organic farming would be possible in countries outside of it.’

The resigned councilor does not want to say with whom she was at the meeting. This site previously discovered that her husband had, among other things, reposted a message from a British pro-Russian journalist via X in recent years. That journalist’s messages mainly contained Russian propaganda. The husband said by telephone two weeks ago that he had ‘never been to Belarus’. Then he disconnected the connection.

Walters states that she understood the political sensitivity of being at a meeting about migration to Russia or Belarus, but had hoped it would not come out. Now that that has happened, “a lot of question marks remain in her environment,” she says. ‘The publication about my private exploration draws me into the sensitivity of national political themes. This distracts from effective management by me and the municipal council of Hilversum, which I have always stood for,” her statement reads.

That is why she decided to quit as councilor immediately on Wednesday. She says she “does not regret her presence at the meeting” on Russia and Belarus. Walters does not want to say whether pressure has been put on her from the mayor and aldermen to resign. That council said in a statement that it ‘shares the conclusion that the discussion that has arisen about her future plans as a private person is detrimental to her functioning and that of the Hilversum municipal council’.

Walters was an alderman in Hilversum for (among other things) Media Affairs. She was a councilor for eight years and an alderman for ten years. On Wednesday evening, the Hilversum city council will discuss the councilor’s resignation.

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