Column: The Purmerend of Spekkers of June '16

Last week we had Reuring. What a small town can be big at. Great, a wonderful festival it was. I was surprised, in my mind Reuring was no more than one stage on the koemarkt but in the meantime it turned out to have grown into a true event with multiple stages in different locations.

Over 300 volunteers cooperated to make Reuring a success. genuinely fantastic, but there is always room for improvement. For example, the organization totally missed the mark when it came to using Social Media and a message from Reuring to the volunteer group yesterday created a sour aftertaste.

One of the carters and regular paid employees of reuring was disappointed in the number of volunteers who busied themselves cleaning up after the event in the park over the past few days. 'Next year this really needs to be different,' the paid worker said. 'Not just the joys, but also the burdens, sharing together,' she concluded her rambling message in which she vented her heart about the shortage of volunteers 'The final party already has a nasty taste in my mouth,' she stated. 'Reuring is over for the public on Sunday. But also for the vast majority of volunteers. A far too small group, then had to tear everything down and clean up.'

While I did understand her thought, I was reminded of the hundreds of volunteers, young and old, who, like me, had spent a long weekend on the field. Who had taken time off to help, who had gone through all kinds of weather to make Reuring a success. Volunteers who, with or without disabilities, stood up to their ankles in the mud and who, on Monday after the long Reuring weekend, started a normal work week again. Not only the joys but also the burdens did sound a bit derogatory and ungrateful with that thought from this paid force, and that Ariane, that created an unpleasant aftertaste with me again.

Confused people. We had plenty of those in Purmerend last month. A car under water in the canal quay. A woman driving a car over a bus lock, after which the car burns down completely. A woman of 22 who starts shooting at youths with an air rifle because she cannot read calmly. A man sentenced to community service for throwing his rabbit into the water earlier this year "because the rabbit supposedly loves to swim. A boy who is arrested after running over a police car. A woman who goes viral on youtube because she goes completely crazy at the Overwhere train station and a patient who stabs nurses at the waterland hospital. June 2016 the month of confused people in Purmerend.

But I do not want to talk to you about those confused people today, but I do want to talk to you about the confused man Arie-Wim Boer, who is emerging more and more as the little dictator. Unthinkable from Purmerend politics and nationally -under the name Arie-Wim Beer- the face of Purmerend politics.

Last month, a veritable exodus from the Party of Arie-Wim began. First Commissioner Rob Klaucke resigned, after which online mud-slinging began. Not much later, Gert-Jan Hartog also stepped down. 'Although I support the thought well of Leefbaar Purmerend still completely I have no sense in this carnival and kindergarten class anymore. I believe in politics that is mature and respectful of each other,' Hartog said in a response to me. Arie-Wim was quite angry about Klaucke's departure and especially at the manner of his departure. Hartog requested that Arie-Wim fight it out in another way, which Arie-Wim felt little desire for. "For me it was take it or leave it," Hartog told me. So in the end it became leave it. Hartog would already leave the party later this year, Boer's behavior only accelerated it. According to voices in the party, things are still rumbling within Boer's party.

Replacement for the departed committee members will be number 9 on the candidates list of Leefbaar Purmerend. Chris Boer aka the son of Arie-Wim Boer who managed to get 21 votes last election. Soon he will enter the council. Not yet because he is not yet 18, but as soon as he is, he will follow in his father's footsteps and join mum and dad at their kitchen table in the council. The Boer family's kitchen table received considerable criticism online. For example, D66 councilor Van Meekeren tweeted "A party that may have the family sitting in the council in 2018. I think something about that and positive that is not...'

Families on the council is not unique and I don't really understand the fuss either. It has happened before in several cities in the Netherlands. For example, Amsterdam had the Bakker family. And families in politics have also proven their worth outside the Netherlands. Take in Italy where Berlusconi and his familia have meant a lot to the local population and development. But at all if you look at the history of the mafia and their interweaving in politics you cannot deny that it was a smart move by the cosa nostra to get involved in politics as a family. Even in Venzuela, where the daughter of late President Chavez -without ever having completed an education or ever having had a job- is allowed to take a seat on the security council, you can see the usefulness of family. She gets a seat as a gift that in the Netherlands, after 12 years of lobbying with difficulty, you might be allowed to sit on.

A dictatorship often has an undemocratic character. They often lack freedom of the press, engage in repression of opponents and dissenters, apply intimidation and enforce their own laws. Scrolling a bit musingly through Arie-Wim Boer's headlines, I cannot help but recognize a number of things.

For example, tonight the council is discussing an official complaint from a number of schoolchildren, including a minor who felt intimidated by Arie-Wim Boer. The group of Liveable has indicated not to participate in tonight's debate. Why also participate in a debate following an official complaint procedure in which an independent agency investigated the complaint and declared it valid? This is not the first time Arie-Wim Boer has been discredited, time after time he manages to turn the Purmerend town council into a puppet show.

The problem with a dictatorship is often the succession, but in the case of Arie-Wim Boer we don't have to worry about that yet. For years he has been busy preparing his underage son for the political arena in Purmerend. The Boer family, the almost royal dynasty of Purmerend politics.