Rotterdam has a new mayor! Previous Mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb, who served from 5 January 2009 to 1 October 2024, was succeeded by Mayor Carola Schouten on 10 October last year.

Ms Carola Schouten was Minister of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality from 2017 to 2022. Before that, she was a parliamentary spokesperson on Higher Education, Justice, Economy, and Innovation & Finance. Schouten is now the mayor of Europe’s largest port city, the global city of Rotterdam. She cycles to work every day. “But if it rains, I take the tram,” she joked in an interview with the Algemeen Dagblad newspaper.

It’s great that this is just a normal thing in Rotterdam. She is already being recognized in the city as the new mayor, where she is greeted warmly. Carola Schouten has lived in Rotterdam for thirty years. The new mayor has made it clear that she is not here to dictate ‘how everything should be done’ but rather to discuss with people how things can be improved. To this end, a ‘city discussion’ was held in January with key community figures and residents from various Rotterdam neighbourhoods.