The student party has written its own version of the full-page ad the VVD (People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy) leader took out in various national newspapers in late January. In the open letter, the prime minister told antisocial people to leave the country. ‘Act like a normal person or leave’, he wrote. But SOG is calling on students to stay in Groningen: ‘Leaving for a better life elsewhere is not the solution.’
In his version of the letter, faction chairperson Evan Clark addresses all the students who leave Groningen after graduation. Last week, the Central Statistics Agency (CBS) reported that the city is merely a way station for many young people. Upon graduation, they often leave for the Randstad to continue to their studies or start work. ‘Students exchange the green grass of the Noorderplantsoen for the Vondelpark and the Euromast: surely we can’t let that happen?’, Clark asks the readers.
Groningen spin
The SOG wanted to put a Groningen spin on Rutte’s controversial ad, says Clark. ‘We thought the tone of his letter was quite negative, due to the use of remarks such as “Act like a normal person or leave”’, he says. His own version focuses on students. ‘I tried to make it more positive by using satire and naming everyday student characteristics.’
The party calls upon the community to ensure that future generations will never leave Groningen again. ‘Let us fight to make sure that the first-years, the successors, the new kids in town, never leave. (…) Let us come together to make Groningen a final destination rather than just a way station’, Clark writes. ‘I wouldn’t want to live anywhere other than my student house. Would you?’
Orange and blue
The fact that SOG has come up with the parody is striking. The party is often considered the VVD of the University Council. SOG and the VVD even have the same party colours: orange and blue. However, according to the faction chair, SOG is ‘completely unrelated to the national political spectrum’ and has ‘no specific preference for any one party’. Clark: ‘We faction members are too diverse for that. If Roemer or Pechtold had written the letter, I would’ve done the same. The letter was interesting because of the story, not the writer.’
Click the picture to read the letter (in Dutch)