Voting with Volkers — Writing a thesis, volunteering and politics? Bowien Wegman (PvdA) does it all! (Interview)
By: Sam Volkers
After the sharp fall during the 2017 national elections and the mediocre result during the 2021 national elections, the PvdA (the Labour Party) has been trying to get itself together again. The upcoming municipal elections will show if these efforts will prove to be successful. To gain a better insight into the PvdA, I interview Bowien Wegman, who is the number 10 for PvdA Haarlem.
Bowien is 24 years old and studies Communication Science at the UvA. Before becoming a candidate for PvdA in Haarlem, she was a board member at Mercurius, the study association of Communication Science at the UvA. Besides these activities, Bowien has been politically active for a few years. Inspired by the problems she faced on the housing market, Bowien became more active in politics and first joined the Socialist Party (SP). Two years ago she left the Socialist Party and joined the PvdA and its youth-wing “de Jonge Socialisten” (the Young Socialists). She explains her choice for PvdA over the other left-wing parties: ‘I like a lot of the left-wing parties in the Netherlands, for example, I am worried about climate change, but I also saw that for a lot of people it is not easy going green if you don’t have a lot of money. So for example, driving an electric car costs a lot of money. A lot of people don’t have that, and I think left-wing parties should realize this. I think that’s why I prefer PvdA over, for example, GroenLinks (GreenLeft).’ Besides the focus on economic inequality, Bowien also liked the way that PvdA goes about making their plans: ‘I also feel like the PvdA is coming with good solutions for problems. For example, when they make an electoral manifesto, they actually calculate the things from the manifesto. And SP, for example, doesn’t do that. So they come with good substantiated solutions for problems, and with SP I felt this was not always the case.’ Besides being an active PvdA member, Bowien also does volunteer work as a coordinator at Jong&Out Haarlem, which is an organization helping young LGBTQ+ people in Haarlem.
Bowien became a candidate for the PvdA in Haarlem after receiving word that the party was looking for members to be on their electoral list. Although she is busy with her studies and work as coordinator, Bowien is also very motivated to be a candidate: ‘I heard the municipal elections were coming up, and I thought like: “I think it’s too, too important to not sign up for it.” I also want to give young people in Haarlem a voice. So that’s how I can start and that’s why I signed up for the PvdA list in my city Haarlem.’
As mentioned before, the main problem that motivated Bowien to join the PvdA, and now also to be a candidate, is the housing crisis. Just like Amsterdam, Haarlem is plagued by a shortage of housing, in particular for people with less money and young people. Some students also move to Haarlem from Amsterdam, because they see the prices there as being lower, which contributes to the strain put on the housing market. To solve the housing problem, Bowien (and the PvdA) propose to build 10.000 new homes in 8 years and implement policies making the housing market in Haarlem fairer such as combatting vacancy in the city. As a student, Bowien wants to carry a voice for young people and students in Haarlem. To combat loneliness in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic and help the Haarlem nightlife, Bowien proposes to allow at least one location (e.g. a club or bar) to be open 24-hours, where young people and students can meet because most clubs in Haarlem are still closed. Bowien also wants to do more for (young) LGBT people in Haarlem and maintain its status as a “Rainbow city”.
Although Bowien likes campaigning, she explains that it can be tough to combine politics with her studies and personal life: ‘It’s hard. I’m not going to lie. But, it’s also something I get a lot of energy from, because I feel like I’m doing something for good reasons. I’m also writing my thesis at the moment, and one of my deadlines for the paper is at the same time as the elections. So it’s a busy time for me. But yeah, I think I can manage and it’s for a good cause. I maybe have to, when I get elected, lose some other hobbies. I do like reading, but I will probably not have a lot of time for that anymore.’
When I asked Bowien about her possible future political goals, she explains that she is still open-minded about her future career: ‘I’m not sure if I want to go into national or European politics, but I would maybe like to be what’s called an “alderman”. I feel like a lot of people think that national politics is better or higher than municipal politics but I don’t think it’s true because, at the local level, parties can do a lot for the municipality. We get to give the “yes” or “no” for a lot of things like public transport, where new clubs are going to be built, where the new school will be, like, it’s so many important things. So I don’t think that when you are in politics you need to get higher per se. I think that local politics is of the same importance.’
Note: This interview was originally published on 16/03/2022 on YOUvA Today
