Mayor Job Cohen
Posted by Monique van Dusseldorp on November 6, 2009 at 10:54 am
In his first years as mayor, Job Cohen presided over important decisions by the city administration (mayor, aldermen and city council) on projects such as the construction of a new 1,5 billion euro metro line under the city centre, a new top-level business centre (‘Zuid-As’), new residential area’s on artificial islands North-West of Amsterdam (IJburg), new initiatives on large scale regional cooperation in the West of the Netherlands (with Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht), and the renovation of the famous Stedelijk Museum.
Mayor Cohen personally has brought the fight against poverty in urban areas back on the political agenda and is, again in close collaboration with his deputy mayors, working hard on improving the international economical position of Amsterdam. The mayor is involved in international cooperation with countries like Surinam, Morocco, Turkey, Ghana, and the Netherlands Antilles (all of which are the countries of origin of major immigration groups in Amsterdam).
One of Job Cohen’s first notable acts as mayor was to officiate over the first ever same-sex legal marriage, having piloted as Deputy Minister of Justice the legislation required only months earlier. Together with the city deputy mayors and the city council, Job Cohen distinguished himself in 2005 by preventing escalation after the murder (by a fundamentalist Muslim fanatic) of film director Theo van Gogh (2004). He led the city’s people in a street protest meeting, calling for unity and tolerance. Ever since the murder, which saw Job Cohen himself targeted by the
assassin (who was arrested immediately), the mayor, the aldermen and the city councilors have made an enormous effort to involve all inhabitants of Amsterdam – from all communities indiscriminately, with the exception of those threatening with or practicing violence – in a tolerant, peaceful and open society without discrimination.
