Tilburg Mayor Theo Weterings' farewell strategy for shaping historical legacy
Mayor Theo Weterings Bids Farewell to Tilburg in Emotional Video
On August 30, 2025, Dutch politician Theo Weterings celebrated his final day as the mayor of Tilburg. The occasion was marked by a heartfelt farewell video, posted on the official Tilburg Municipality Instagram account after the physical farewell event had concluded.
The video, filmed in 'Het Vrijheidspark' in Tilburg, a park containing monuments commemorating the Scottish allied forces that liberated Tilburg, Dutch soldiers, soldiers from Tilburg who died in the East Indies, civilian casualties of the Second World War, and allied soldiers, served as a poignant backdrop to Weterings' speech. The Dutch flag regularly waved in the background, adding a touch of national pride to the proceedings.
In his speech, Weterings expressed his gratitude to the people who said goodbye to him, emphasizing the development and pride of Tilburg. He referred to the hardships faced by the city after the collapse of the textile industry in the years following World War II, and spoke of the local inclusiveness of his message. The phrase "take good care of each other," famously used by Amsterdam mayor Eberhard van der Laan in his farewell letter in 2017, resonated throughout Weterings' speech, symbolizing the end of public duty.
The video indexed popular social media formats and practices with background audio, creating a modern and engaging atmosphere. The 'Potloodflat,' a striking building in Tilburg, could be seen in the background, adding a unique visual element to the video.
The author of the analysis of the farewell video on the Tilburg Municipality Instagram page remains unknown. However, the message exuded a historically driven local and national pride and optimism, but 'ugly' histories and ironic attitudes may be present in the background.
The farewell event featured a range of public activities, including lectures, exhibitions, and performances. The next day, Weterings' Instagram account was wiped and transformed to accommodate Tilburg's new mayor, Onno Hoes.
Weterings' hybrid farewell demonstrates the push and pull between forgetting and remembering, pride and sorrow, beauty and ugliness, visibility and invisibility, and the local and the national. He becomes a historical node in a layered, polycentric network that can be called upon to evoke certain meanings.
Van der Laan's mayoralty, public appearance, and the Amsterdammers' response to his illness were highly mediated and resulted in the phrase becoming one of Amsterdam's secular hymns. Weterings' call to "take good care of each other" in his farewell speech serves as a reminder of this emotional 'goodbye,' and a call to continue Van der Laan's legacy of community care.
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