Tweet17-01-2010 om 18:14 by Maastricht Region Branding Foundation

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.

Influence

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.

Source: DutchNews.nl

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