After four years of intenstive lobbying, Friesland has become the final ‘rainbow province’ in the Netherlands
Translated by Thomas Ansell
As reported by the Omrop Fryslân, the move has come following a huge majority vote for becoming a ‘rainbow province’ in the Frisian provincial assembly. A rainbow flag was accordingly hung on the Provinciehuis yesterday.
The rainbow flag symbolises Friesland’s solidarity with the LGBTQI+ community. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Forum voor Democracy and PVV, both reactionary right-wing parties, voted against the motion. They were joined by some members of the CDA and Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s VVD parties.
Members voting against the motion suggested that hanging the flag was simply ‘symbol politics’. Though naturally the actual symbollic value of the new flag is somewhat hard to measure, the numbers of people speaking out against Friesland being the only non-rainbow flag province suggest that public support for the move is high.
In total, 30 members of the assembly voted for the motion, with 13 against. Freisland was the only province in the entire Netherlands not to be a ‘rainbow province’ (Drenthe was the first in the country). A vote was also brought forward in 2016, but the motion failed then.
Image van Mary Bettini Blank via Pixabay
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