Visions for Maastricht: A “City for the People”, with Muun Ubbink

Vote!

Are you a European citizen, and are you registered in the municipality of Maastricht? Then, good news! You can vote in the upcoming local elections on March 18th! 

Our local coverage team invited candidates for interviews, and it aims to give keys to students to make their choice, without any editorial endorsement. 

For our second episode, we introduce Muun Ubbink, candidate for the Socialist Party.

[Author’s note: Our first article was in a “written format”. However, for matters of readability and time, we adopted this Q&A format.]

---

Sometimes our role as student journalists can look like a game. At least this was our feeling when we interviewed one of the candidates for the Socialist Party, Muun Ubbink, aged 19, the same age as we were. It was nice to talk to this passionate young politician, because all three of us took our roles very seriously. This hour of talk on local issues with this UCM student was exciting. Here is what our talks were about. 

“Our priority is to put people over profit.”

Maastricht Diplomat (MD): Why have you chosen to enter politics? 

Muun Ubbink (MU): I always wanted to have an impact on society and to change things in what I considered the best way. 

At first, I was active in a labour union. The main reason for this was that I was upset with the working conditions in the restaurants in Maastricht. However, it is really difficult to have victories in labour unions. You keep fighting for things not to become worse. 

Politics has different objectives than the labour union. You can defend the vision that you find the best, and fight for it. My main motivation for entering politics was to make actions that can benefit the city that I live in, and to do good for the people. The common objective of labour unions and politics is to try to speak with the people who are being affected by the issues you talk about. 

MD: Why did you join the SP rather than any other party? 

MU: Our priority is to put people over profit, and today, we are the only party that is aiming to do this. It was my priority when I was in the labour union, and the message of the Socialist Party appealed to me immediately. 

“Students need to be aware that their voice matters.” 

Today, young people are disillusioned by political parties, and the SP can appear like a solution to reconnect the youth with politics. Indeed, before the elections in October 2025, EenVaandag published a study showing that 40% of the young generation felt disconnected from politics. Moreover, the NL Times argued that parties like the Party for the Animals, JA21, or the Socialist Party could be refuges for people who do not feel represented by any party. 

MD: Are you the youngest in the Maastricht section of the party? 

MU: There are a lot of young people at the party, because they feel that they are disappointed with other parties. Also, we organize a lot of events and try to create a sense of community. The party has renewed itself in recent years and tries to develop its attractiveness. 

MD: Why do you think young people and students should care about the local political decisions?

MU: Young people are the main group of the population of the city (18-34 years old were more than 30% of the population in 2023). Still, the leading party of the Gemeenteraad (the City Council) is the Senior Party. If the young generation wants to see things change, they need to vote because their voice deserves to be heard! We claim to “put people over profit”, and we are the only party for which it’s 100% the case, and it benefits students as well. 

“We are the social alternative.”

MD: You have 2 members in the current city council. What were the main achievements of these councilors? 

MU: When we arrived in the Gemeenteraad in 2022, homelessness was illegal in Maastricht. Now, homeless people won’t be fined by the authorities for sleeping outside. This shows that we are the only option for the people who want a social alternative. During our mandate, we gained a lot of new members in the party. We brought a lot of hope to the people. 

MD: You are in sixth position on the list. If you were to be elected, what would be your first proposal? 

MU: The most important issue for me is to ensure a proper home for LBB and that the place is occupied by something that benefits the people. 

MD: Could you expand on your position on LBB? 

MU: LBB is one of the rare places where people from different origins and backgrounds meet. We need a space like this! However, the city council is choosing the interests of the capital. My preference, and that of the party, is to keep the building and the location as they are now. However, if the building in itself needs to disappear, we have some demands. Mainly, the cultural events and the food bank should be offered a proper and suitable alternative. Also, the space that is currently occupied by the Landbouwbelang should be used for student and social housing. We refuse plans that propose to build housing aimed at the wealthiest, like in the currently examined project. 

It is the same thing for the Cinema Palace in Wyck. The SP has put this question forward in the Gemeenteraad, but the municipality doesn’t want to renew this place and advocates for its demolition to build luxury apartments. We have to do something that benefits the people of Maastricht. 

MD: You say that we need to hear the voices of the local population. How do you want to make the Maastrichteners more involved in the decision-making process? 

MU: Our priority is to give a voice to the people in Maastricht, whether they’ve been here for 30 years or 30 days. This is done, firstly, by strengthening participation and by giving a voice to people in Maastricht. 

When making the program, we listen to the voices of the people by going into every district and talking to all sorts of people. This is also translated through our list, in which our members come from every orientation. 

“Maastricht should be a community.”

MD: You advocate for more cohesion and less segregation. How do you want to achieve that in the coming years? 

MU: Every neighborhood of Maastricht should stop the segregation between social housing and housing for rich people. The municipality has the power to deliver permits for housing, and they have the power to decide what and where we should build. For example, we can use existing spaces to create social or student housing. Both of these issues deserve to be addressed by the municipality. As it is said in our election manifesto, your chances in life shouldn't depend on your postcode. 

MD: Would you have the time to do this in 4 years? 

MU: Of course, the change in the social organization of the city is not something that would be done in 4 years, and maybe not in 400 years. But the change in mentality can be done tomorrow. The municipality, by building social housing that they don’t have right now, allows people to go to areas where they wouldn’t have gone first. Speak to each other and change the mentality. 

MD: The national SP has stated that ‘internationalisation will not be for profit’ and wants to bring the number of international students ‘in balance’. How does this align with the Maastricht SP?

MU: First of all, internationalization is positive. It makes Maastricht the city we know, very dynamic and attractive. 

Still, the university wants to make sure to recruit students who can bring money to both the university and the city. Housing prices are really high, so it can put a limit on the diversity of the student population. Therefore, the risk is to have a university that only brings students from the highest classes. So, we need to be conscious of the fact that the goal remains that students from all backgrounds are coming. Today, if it remains expensive, only the wealthy students would come, and they would take the place of lower-class Dutch students. 

MD: You insist on the fact that Maastricht is a connected city that lives for and by internationals. Do you think, like some other parties, that offering free Dutch classes can be a solution to include international people in the city's decision-making process?

MU: I agree that it’s a good idea to offer language courses to internationals, as this also contributes to building a community. I even think that the municipality should offer language courses of “Maastrichts”, aiming at making it simpler to speak with your neighbours. 

MD: How do you plan to balance between ‘Limburgisch’ and ‘Maastrichts’? 

MU: It is a difficult question, and the government has a responsibility for this. We should allow people to talk and be in contact with this language, but ministers in The Hague might impose restrictions. However, I advocate for the province to protect its diversity. This also means not making it an official language because it would lose the diversity that makes its wealth. We should accept our languages in their diversity. 

MD: The SP insists on the necessity of including citizens in the decision-making process by increasing consultations and engaging the neighbourhoods in the process. For example, you claim that “Citizens’ influence is not a luxury.” How does it translate in reality? 

MU: Mainstream parties have failed because they abandoned communities in favour of profit. Today, people from low socio-economic backgrounds pay the price for this because they aren’t being heard. 

Our party wants to break the system down and build it back up. This means that we have to gain back the confidence of the people who lost confidence in the existing system. We have to prove that we’re capable of fixing problems and that we put people back first. We want to engage citizens in neighbourhood assemblies, referendums, and bottom-up neighbourhood plans with their own budgets and decisions. In this way, democracy becomes a reality. 

“We are a red party, but also deeply green.”

MD: In the area of green transition, you argue that citizens should be more engaged in proposing ideas for having greener districts. Could you expand on that? 

MU: The SP is one of the most progressive parties on this point, and one of the first achievements of the party was in favour of the environment in the 80s. We think that this transition should be done by and for the people. These discussions will take place in the neighbourhoods, for people to find what suits them best. 

MD: Regarding transport, what are the SP priorities?

MU: Maastricht is at the heart of the EUregio, and it makes sense to learn things from each country and to cooperate. A lot of students are living in other countries, so we need to invest in cross-border connections. Maastricht should be a place where connections are made to benefit its inhabitants. 

---

We hope that you found this interview insightful and that it helped you make up your mind! Personally, we enjoyed talking about politics with a fellow student! Thank you, Muun Ubbink, for these insights!