Zwolle
approves plan to house 400 refugees despite Wilders visit
July 8,
2025
Zwolle
town council has passed plans to build an accommodation centre for 400 asylum
centres in the teeth despite coming under pressure from PVV party leader Geert
Wilders to block the scheme.
Nine out
of 10 parties on the town council approved the site at De Tippe, in a newbuild
neighbourhood of the Overijssel capital, which is due to open in 2027.
The
town’s mayor, Peter Snijders, took a sideswipe at Wilders after the far-right
leader addressed a crowd of protesters outside the council building before the
meeting.
“We’re
very capable of taking our own decisions,” Snijders said. “He could take an
example from us in The Hague. Not just him, by the way. We stand up for our
decisions here in Zwolle and we also feel a responsibility to act on them.”
Several
people were arrested outside the council building as riot police were deployed
to contain the crowd. Counter-protests were also staged by supporters of the
facility.
Wilders,
flanked by bodyguards, accused the government of turning the Netherlands into
“one huge asylum facility.” He said: “The idea of putting around 400 asylum
seekers in Zwolle near houses, a school and a station – what kind of idiot
dreams that up?”
Opponents
of the scheme packed the public gallery, while a petition of 5,500 signatures
was handed in before the meeting. Several people walked out of the meeting just
before the vote, protesting loudly.
Police
station
The nine
parties agreed to back the plan after agreeing with the council executive to
limit the number of residents to 400 and install a police station in the
neighbourhood.
Zwolle is
required to accommodate 650 asylum seekers under the so-called “spreading law”,
designed to ensure all municipalities house a proportionate share of refugees.
Wilders
said the council should ignore the law and called on protesters not to give up
if the plan was approved. “As far as I’m concerned, the times when we accepted
this are over,” he said.
Last
weekend the town council in Coevorden, on the German border in Drenthe,
abolished plans to accommodate 14 teenage girl refugees in a residential
neighbourhood after it became the focus of violent protests.
A car was
torched, windows in the building were smashed and a crowd set fire to a trailer
stacked with wood. Mayor Renze Bergsma said: “We cannot guarantee the girls’
safety. They deserve a safe home and a secure future and we cannot offer them
that.”
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