Visions for Maastricht: The “Beating Heart of Europe”, with Jules Ortjens

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. 

Today, we start with Jules Ortjens, who is running for Volt. 

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Made in Europe 

It was not difficult to convince Jules Ortjens, Fractievoorzitter (party leader) for Volt Maastricht, to attend our interview. He managed to find a spot in his agenda to speak to our team, despite being simultaneously a local councillor and tutor at both FASoS and UCM. 

Jules is a true Maastrichtenaar, being born and raised here, as well as completing his Bachelor's at FASoS. But, he also feels like a true European, having lived in Estonia for a year and a half to complete his Master’s. In this talk, he explained to our writers how he planned to make Maastricht more cohesive, fair, open, and European. 

In Maastricht, Jules entered local politics due to his attachment to Maastricht, which he describes as a “cosmopolitan village”. He is motivated by the community that he knows well. “I wouldn’t feel comfortable working in politics for another city.” For him, working on the local level is the best way to address the challenges of the people, and that projects and decisions start with residents in their neighbourhoods.

When asked why he decided to join Volt over another party, Jules answered that it is the way to actively cooperate on a European level, because it is a political party that unites people believing in a strong European project. “If you really want to build European integration from the bottom up, you have to initiate the movement locally.” His vision is that citizens need to start looking at Europe as a much broader phenomenon, and not only as EU institutions. The project of Volt is to create a movement for the people, from the people, in which the EU can be a daily reality and a local project that the people believe in. Jules summarized it this way: “Stop being abstract.” 

The local politician spent several years in the Gemeenteraad representing Volt. This European political party, active across the continent, from the national to the local level, shares a common program, goals, and values. These common ideals are shaped at yearly General Assemblies where party members decide on the programme for the coming year. Then, these ideals are implemented by the various chapters of Volt, adapted to the needs of different countries, cities, and regions. So, what does Volt want for Maastricht?

Observing the city… 

The positioning of Maastricht in the deep south of the Netherlands has not only given it unique traditions like carnival, but also a political culture unlike elsewhere in the Netherlands. It has more in common with industrial cities like Liège, Essen, Lille, or Manchester than with other Dutch municipalities, which never industrialized to the degree that Maastricht did. Emblematic of this difference is the Stokstraat, now a luxurious shopping street but once the last slum of the Netherlands. According to Jules, who is also a political historian, this history “created incentives for the upper class to keep the lower class poor and uneducated”. These class divides continue to live on, says Jules, pointing out that Maastricht is the 3rd most segregated city in the Netherlands in terms of income. These differences impact the relationships between students and non-students, as well as between Dutch people and international residents, who are not as intertwined as Volt would like to see them. 

However, that doesn’t prevent Jules from being passionate about the process of creating a feeling of community. Volt attempts to achieve this by including citizens in talks each month (in Dutch and English), to share ideas for a better future in Maastricht. For Jules, it is a way to include international students and also people from the baby-boom generation. “No matter how short you’re planning to stay, we live in a shared city.” He also argued that the party is getting more and more diversified, as illustrated by the composition of the local team. 

Many international students are part of the fraction, and Jules explains that “there is no need to speak Dutch to join us!” Furthermore, getting international students involved in politics comes with its own benefits. “Non-Dutch voters tend to think more locally than the Dutch ones”, since they are more focused on local issues as opposed to Dutch voters, who consider national interests when voting in municipal elections.

He goes on explaining that Maastricht is getting stronger through the benefits of internationalization. However, Jules introduces a surprising paradox. Indeed, he explains that the city doesn’t manage to keep young people in the city, and that it keeps growing older. Maastricht has a much higher “old-age index” than the average number in the Netherlands, being the 17th out of 352 Dutch municipalities. “Maastricht experiences the parallel issues of growing and dying cities. The city is expanding, but in the meantime, children's schools are closing, and there is a shortage of labour in the job market.” 

Not all hope is lost. “I saw the first signs of a new community emerging in the past years. This gives me hope.” A small number of former international students are staying in the city, and they are sending their children to kindergarten. However, Jules agrees that there are not enough incentives for students to stay in the region, which is bad for the economy. “We miss a bridge between students and the local population.” 

…To reform it 

When asked about what needs to change, Jules is clear. One of the priorities begins with taxes, and more specifically, taxes on the wealthy. The municipality can achieve this through an increase in the municipal housing tax, which would enable the building of social housing. This would benefit the main groups looking for affordable housing, such as low-income residents and international students.

As for tensions between different social groups in Maastricht, Jules thinks an essential part of the solution could be free Dutch language classes for students and other new residents. Now, the barrier is often too high, due to the price or the lack of benefit for already busy students. For example, Dutch courses are often not eligible for ECTS, decreasing the incentive to enroll. 

Volt also strongly advocates for the doubling of the culture budget in Maastricht. Museums, festivals, performances, and other expressions of culture are among the main draws of Maastricht as a desirable city. But, in Jules’ words, “We don’t want to just increase the budget, but it should aim to bring people together and connect the city with the border region.” The municipality should create space in the budget so that people can transform ideas into real projects. These ideas should connect people “outside of their bubbles.” As an example of this, Jules describes the ‘Buurttheater’, an initiative in which citizens from all walks of life create and perform a play together. 

Volt’s stance on local counterculture is clear. “It would be a huge mistake if Landbouwbelang (LBB) disappears from the city.” The conservative and right-wing parties would like to see LBB disappear to make housing. It will likely be demolished, but Jules advocates for its relocation if it does get demolished. “It will be one of the main battlefields of the coming years. We need a new place for LBB.” This case illustrates why international students should become more involved in local politics. According to Jules, only once plans to close LBB had nearly been finalized did the LBB audience and supporters take action, displaying a lack of communication from the municipality. “This is a symptom we need to learn from, by including international and non-Dutch speakers in local politics”. 

Lastly, Jules claims that public transport is not developed enough, and it harms the city. Cross-border connections are currently slow and indirect. Jules would like to see a train every fifteen minutes to Liège, and direct trains to Cologne and Brussels. Direct access to these employment hubs would be an incentive to stay in the city. 

But, this is partially a national issue as well. “Nation-states continue to invest more in the centre than the periphery”. Volt was one of the parties that successfully lobbied for the 3-border train connecting Liège, Maastricht, and Aachen directly. For Jules, political actors need to claim that it would serve the national interest of each country to have a university that educates the future European diplomats of Brussels. 

Campaigning and Making Politics in Maastricht

Throughout the conversation, Jules gave us some elements about Volt’s campaigning strategy. The main one is to actively listen to people and make sure that their voices are heard, independently of their nationality, for as long as they live in Maastricht. “As I said, the city is still somewhat segregated. For this reason, our Dutch and international chapters often work separately because the debates in the two communities are not always the same”. For him, Volt’s attitude should not be to try to convince people, but listen to individual concerns and take their concerns into account. “It is really important to keep having a dialogue with the most vulnerable in society.” 

Finally, we asked Jules about the political situation in the city council, and who their main partners are. Today, Volt is part of the opposition, but its future role will depend on the changes in the political equilibrium. “It is possible to make things move if we advertise well the issues of international students.” Jules explains that a “social majority” exists, with other parties caring about youth issues, students and inequality, like the Christian Democrats, the Social Democrats, and the centrists of D66. However, the main issue regarding Maastricht’s political landscape is its fragmentation. “You need to have 6 or 7 parties to form a coalition. The Maastricht Council is often famous for being among the most fragmented of the Netherlands!” This results in very tense meetings and difficulties in finding agreements between the actors. 

Our last question asked Jules to summarize why students should vote for Volt. “We are not the only party that cares about international students, but we are the only party that is actually led and mobilised by international students!” 

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And, this is how our interview came to an end! We hope that it gives you a clearer overview of the main topics of the campaign and the role you have to play as a student in Maastricht. Your voice matters! 

We would like to thank Jules Ortjens for his time and this insightful talk.