Visions for Maastricht: A “City of Opportunity”, with Marlou Jenneskens

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.

In this fifth episode of "Visions for Maastricht", we explore the programme of D66, with Marlou Jenneskens.

---

On this rainy Friday morning, we met Marlou Jenneskens, leading candidate for D66 Maastricht, at Fixed Gear Cafe. Humming coffee machines and jazz music in the background, we talked about education and the power of citizens with this passionate politician. Here is how it went. 

“So much progress is possible if we invest in education and science.”

Maastricht Diplomat (MD): What is your connection to Maastricht? Did you grow up here?

Marlou Jenneskens (MJ): It’s funny, people always ask me that. I grew up in a small village in the northern part of Limburg. However, I have always wanted to live in Maastricht, and my first job was here. A former governor always said that you can be a Maastrichtenaar either by birth or if you really want it. I consider myself a Maastrichtenaar by culture, and I feel really attached to the city and this region. 

MD: Why did you decide to enter local politics, and D66 specifically?

MJ: I entered politics by accident while working for the province of Limburg for a regional minister. I unexpectedly entered the top of the D66 list, and now I have been the chairwoman of the regional fraction in Limburg for 7 years. I decided to enter this party because it is closest to my personal values. It stands for social liberalism and the power of the people. On the other hand, it stands for education, as a foundation for progress. These two things are what I strongly believe in. There is still so much progress to be made. And so much is possible if we keep investing in education and science. 

MD: Why did you choose local instead of national politics? 

MJ: I really want to improve the conditions of the city that I live and work in, and I would like to continue living here. I worked in the Province, which is the “middle layer” of the administration. There, I worked in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, because for me, education is the most powerful asset to improve one's condition. Now, running for the municipality, I discovered a new aspect of local politics. 

©  Jonathan Vos Photography

MD: Do you think you can benefit from the dynamics of your party in the last national elections? 

MJ: Yes, I hope so! But the voters are always right. The only thing I can do is work hard and make a great campaign. I am really happy to see that the party won against the populists, and I hope that people will share our priorities at the local level. 

If you are a regular reader of the Maastricht Diplomat, you know that the general elections were held in October 2025 to vote for a new Parliament. D66 won the elections, and the party leader, Rob Jetten, is now the Prime Minister of a centre-right coalition. In Maastricht, the party progressed a lot (+12% compared to 2023) and reached more than 19% of the votes. The far-right PVV was still the most popular party, getting more than 21% of the votes. 

“We want to use a community-based approach.”

MD: You want to rethink the organization of neighborhoods by having “more presence” to create a trustworthy space where people can feel safe. How do you want to implement that? 

MJ: We want to create places where people can go confidently. But it’s not just about the Municipality reaching the people; it also needs local support. We want to solve this with a ‘community-based’ approach, because the community often knows everything, whilst the municipality does not. We must talk with the people to see how they want to do it. We also need to organise better access to health professionals or bridging officers, who should be trusted by the people who live there. 

MD: You want to strengthen the local democracy. How will you involve citizens? 

MJ: Yes, this can be seen, for example, in the children councils, which is a structured way to keep in touch with neighbourhoods. Our project also aims to implement citizens’ budgets, where citizens themselves decide on where to allocate a budget, rather than representatives alone. 

“Investing in the new generation is key.”

MD: How do you want students to participate in the democratic life of the city? 

MJ: As a city, we really want to attract more people. In this, we can also learn from different cities. Thomas Gardien [current city councilor of D66] helped to create structures to meet students in Maastricht and helped them to get their first job and first housing. Our ‘van student tot baan’ (‘from student to jobs’) program goes in this direction. 

MD: What do you propose for international students to stay in Maastricht? 

MJ: For us, it is not a problem that students come and leave. It is positive! But we really have to make local jobs more accessible, offer more interesting traineeships, create affordable housing, and make local connections accessible. Among investing in other things in the region, we want to create better conditions and make projects for them, to make it easier to live together in the city. This could mean that some people learn Dutch, and others English. Also, the communication of the municipality often remains too complex, which is why we are working hard on publishing our manifesto in English. We already work together with Maastricht University and want to strengthen this connection with internationals. 

MD: You want to create more spaces for students to study. We think it’s a great idea, but what do locals think about it? 

MJ: Yes, and it should be made available not only for university students, but also for high school students. Not everyone grows up in the same conditions, and we want to make facilities available for children who do not have the means to study properly at home. We definitely should invest in the new generation, especially because there is so much potential there to develop. Maastricht really needs these talents as people are getting older in the region. This is one of our biggest challenges, and we have to work hard to mix generations and support young talent more.

“The University is the most important force of growth for our city”.

MD: What do you propose to improve student housing? 

MJ: Students and the University are one of the most important forces of growth for our city. We need to build more housing for both locals and students. We should be proud of being a student city and talk more with students.

MD: Maastricht is one of the most divided cities in the Netherlands. What do you plan to do about the City’s segregation?

MJ: Segregation has many dimensions. One of the biggest problems is that people from different neighbourhoods do not get to meet each other at all. We must ask “What do we want to build, where, and how?” Also, we should work more with people and have trusted faces that people want to talk to. For example, we want a small fund which people can use to organise their own activities in the neighbourhoods. We need to listen more to what ideas they have and allow this creativity to emerge. 

“For culture, we should give space to let things happen.”

MD: Culture has an important place in your program, for example, regarding the role it plays in connecting local culture and the regional agenda. Could you expand on that?

MJ: We want to invest in both local culture as well as the regional area, so that people can come, live, and stay. Whilst there are many facilities for culture in the city, not everyone can access and benefit from them. We need to improve this, for example, with programs at school where kids can learn music and act in the local theater. I attended the show of Maastricht’s school students, and some parents never went to the Theater aan het Vrijthof. We think that culture should be available for everyone, and it’s our role to allow that.

MD: There is no mention of the Landbouwbelang (LBB) in your manifesto, which is a major topic for the student community. What do you think should happen with it? 

MJ: Our view is to invest in so-called “Vrije plaatsen”, cultural free spaces, and in subcultures. I also think that it is important for politics not to always control what happens and make space for this. For LBB, I think that we have to find a new place where they can settle, and more broadly, for places where similar communities can emerge. 

“We have high green ambitions, but also need to keep things realistic.”

MD: Could you explain to us how you want to make the city greener?

MJ: The discussion on how to make the city greener has been going on for many years. We want to make the transition in a way that works for everyone, and there are so many choices and no easy options. We need to make hard choices, especially on energy provisions, to make the rest of our environmental strategy go well. We want to build more houses, make streets and schools, and make gardens greener. That requires materials and energy sources. 

“ Children should walk or cycle to school safely.”

MD: You propose to put the bike as the main mode of the city, even proposing to transform roads into cycling paths. Do you think this will be accepted by the locals? 

MJ: I like these questions, because it is really about asking “Whose city is this?” and then listening to the different perspectives on this. We should ask: “Why is there so much space for car parking in the city?” and “Why is there such a big funding for the building of the Airport?”  Political choices need to benefit the people, and we must make sure that all mobility in the city can coexist. 

MD: Which alternatives do you propose for the accessibility of the city by car? 

MJ: We need to make the inner city more accessible and practical. The city has to serve the people in it, which means that strong choices have to be made. 

MD: What do you think should be done regarding the connection of Maastricht to the rest of the region, for example, in improving the 3-country train?

MJ: The 3-country train is an initiative that we worked very hard on. We used to have a train between Maastricht and Liege. But, thanks to our former D66 regional minister, Maarten van Gaans, it is now a modern 3-country train going from Aachen to Liege through Maastricht. Also, I think that there is no such thing as free public transport. Still, someone has to pay for this, and many competencies here are not for the municipality. 

“Our city has potential, and we need to develop it.”

MD: Could you give us 3 words to define your priorities or vision for Maastricht? 

MJ: We want to develop the potential of the city, so I would say education and building an economy of the future. We are very proud of this “Einstein Telescope” project, and it is the perfect illustration of our ambition for the future, and cooperation with the Euregio. Maastricht is such a beautiful city, and we want to make it stronger. The choices we make to develop its potential are our chance to make the city better. 

You might be wondering what the “Einstein Telescope” is, and this is why we made this short summary: Maastricht and the Euregio are candidates to host the Einstein Telescope, which is a European Union-funded initiative. Maastricht University also contributes to monitoring this project of a future underground gravitational wave observatory (sorry, we aren’t scientists either) and is ready to host it in the region. This makes Maastricht a major hub for research and development in the EU. This project is also one of the priorities of the newly appointed government. 

MD: What are you most proud of from your actions or your party’s in the Gemeenteraad?

MJ: I’m most proud of including students more in the conversation, which means not just about talking about them, but with them. I often miss this perspective in the council debates. I’m also proud of investing more in the future of the buildings. One of our council members developed a project to include people in education and the job market more easily. 

MD: In one sentence, why should students and young people vote for you? 

MJ: We are firm believers in the power of an international university, and we make choices to form a “city of opportunity”. But also, people simply need to go vote! On a local level, all the decisions are impacting you directly.

---

Keep an eye out for future articles! Also, feel free to send us questions or topics you would like the candidates to discuss. We would be happy to hear from you!