DutchNews.nl - Maastricht mayor quits over holiday home

Maastricht's mayor Gerd Leers resigned on Wednesday night after losing city council support because of the Bulgarian holiday home affair.

The resignation follows the publication of a report into the scandal which said Leers had not broken official guidelines but that his actions had given rise to a potential conflict of interest and he had confused his public and private interests.

In his resignation speech, Leers said the debate was not about him. 'I must take responsibility. This is not about Leers, this is about the city,' he said. He had been mayor for eight years.

Leers' problems began when he bought a villa in the Marina Black Sea Riviera development project in 2006 for €220,000. The project soon ran into trouble and it later transpired the villa was not in his name. In May last year he took legal action against the property developer, which includes a top Maastricht civil servant among its shareholders.

The mayor was also been accused of using his position as mayor to influence the development project, particularly by involving the Bulgarian ambassador to the Netherlands. He has also admitted promising the mayor of Byala, where the villa project is based, a second hand fire engine.

Although the report into Leers' integrity effectively cleared him, councillors said the damage had been done. 'The outside world looks differently at Gerd Leers,' Gerod van Grootheest, leader of the local left-wing green party GroenLinks told the Volkskrant.

'He is a hostage to this case. This is not good for him and not good for Maastricht. The situation has become impossible. Neither he, nor Maastricht, deserves that,' Van Grootheest said.

Caught, busted and exposed! Of course stepping down was the right thing to do. Jerk!

By sandra | January 14, 2010 7:48 AM

This guy buys a place in Bulgaria and puts it in someone elses name (illegal? Not really, I did it when i owned a place in London). Then he takes legal action to get either his money back or the project sorted out (illegal? Nope).

The writer of the article then tries to undermine the guys integrity by proposing an accusation, which has obviously not been proven. I would imagine he called the Bulgarian ambassador (do you really think the Bulgarian ambassador to Netherlands is *THAT* busy?) a few times to network and see if he could add weight to it, so what?

Then the only piece of evidence that makes people think twice is the fact he promised a 2nd hand fire engine to the mayor of the other city. Christ, stop the presses! Oh and then he gets cleared of it all anyway.

I would imagine the "Top Civil Servant" in Maastricht has had a hand in this and rued the fact his own name in dodgy eastern european property development has been exposed, and used his own local contacts to discredit the mayor.

I'm sorry but did I miss the passing of the law that said people who hold public office are no longer allowed to act like normal people.

After 8 years of public service this guy has been the victim of a witchunt, which despite his name being formally cleared of all charges has had the desired effect, so whatever you do, don't run for public office in Maastricht if you're thinking of retiring to somewhere sunny, the risk is obviously too great!

This is such an overreaction I'm surprised somebody hasn't called Jason Bourne and had the guy "topped".

By Richard | January 14, 2010 4:45 PM