In 2012, the Edelman Trust Barometer recorded the largest-ever decline in trust towards government and related institutions since this globally renowned institute began conducting its surveys in 1999. Although a cautious improvement has been observed since then, governments worldwide are still perceived as significantly less ethical and competent than business and NGOs.
Ivan Krastev,1 the internationally renowned publicist, devoted a book to this topic, published in 2013: ‘In Mistrust We Trust, can democracy survive when we don’t trust our leaders?’ From the perspective of citizens in the democratic Netherlands, the answer is quite clear: a very large proportion of voters have lost all confidence in their government. In our country, too, the question is to what extent this poses a direct threat to democracy. How can the government regain trust?
Architect, artist, activist and parliamentarian Eliza Hoxha talks about her initiatives for the protection of the rights of victims of sexual abuse during the war in Kosovo (The Artist as Citizen – 2024)
During the low point in 2012, a proposal was made in the Netherlands for a “New Government Information (Public Access) Act”. The existing law, also known by its acronym “Wob”, did not provide for this, and moreover, the Netherlands had fallen behind internationally.2 Nevertheless, it took until 2022, when the trust curve in the Netherlands had already been showing a new and unprecedented sharp decline for a year, before the Open Government Act (Woo) was introduced.
‘The Woo should make it clearer what the government is doing and why,’ according to the national government. Note the word ‘clearer’: before 2022, openness was apparently not a priority in communication with citizens. It is encouraging that Dutch politicians have also realised that openness must be the first step. The Wob that was in force at the time gave government officials too much leeway to ignore or circumvent the provisions on disclosure, or to respond deliberately to the detriment of the person requesting information.
On the other hand, Krastev points out that nothing is as suspicious as the claim that there is complete transparency. Living in truth cannot be reduced to access to complete information. It is people’s willingness to take personal risks and confront those in power by daring to speak the truth, not the truth itself, that ultimately leads to change.
Armed with our experiences in Central and Eastern Europe with authoritarian regimes and the early exercises in democracy after the fall of the Iron Curtain, we have always focused on promoting active citizenship in all our activities, especially when it comes to practitioners of art, culture and science. Since 2023, these activities have been taking place under the motto “the Artist as Citizen”.3
Prof. Mario Neve, Department of Cultural Heritage, Ravenna, University of Bologna (The Artist as Citizen – 2024)
Those who cherish such ideals must, of course, set a good example themselves. As guardians and owners of the intangible heritage of the Felix Meritis Foundation (FMF), European Centre for Culture and Science, we are therefore seeking the considerations of the Amsterdam city government, at the time represented by Alderman Gehrels, to give up the protection of the interests of FMF, tenant and operator, in the sale of the Felix Meritis building to Amerborgh, with considerable prejudice to FMF, its partners, sponsors, networks, visitors, artists, guests, publicists and readers. In short, we ask the Amsterdam government to practise the openness required by law, but also by the need to maintain trust in democracy.
This does not seem to be so easy: between 2015 and 2019, we received no more than twenty documents in response to a Wob request, clearly the result of well-meaning disinterest on the part of a whole series of officials (the “pillar-to-post” method). During a public hearing on 2 May 2017, we were able to present our objections and doubts about the municipality’s openness, confident that, as promised by the chair of the objections committee, we would receive a decision on our objection within four weeks. Despite repeated requests for it to be sent to us, we have received nothing to date, eight years later. It is very remarkable that, according to the municipality, a decision on our objection cannot be found anywhere in the depths of the Waterlooplein.
After engaging an administrative lawyer in 2024, this example of trust-sapping behaviour by Amsterdam finally started to move, and in 2025, as part of a subsequent Woo procedure, we received no fewer than 514 documents. These documents do not show that Alderman Gehrels looked after the interests of FMF during the purchase and sale procedure of the Felix Meritis building in a manner prescribed by the code of conduct for mayors and aldermen. Nor is there any information about how the alderman separated the conflicting interests in her portfolios of Art and Culture, Economic Affairs, Business and Monuments; on the contrary.
We want definitive confirmation that there are no documents that have not yet been made public before we reach our final conclusions, which is why we have submitted another objection. The hearing on this matter will take place on 4 September 2025 at 10:00 a.m. We call on everyone who cares about open government, democracy and trust to be present at the town hall.
Your moral support means a great deal to us. We look forward to seeing you on 4 September at 10:00 a.m. at the town hall (Stopera), entrance Zwanenburgwal 1, Amsterdam. You can register at the reception desk.
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- The Transparency Conspiracy by Ivan Krastev, Permanent Fellow of the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna, was published in 2012. Krastev has been a highly regarded guest speaker at FMF for many years. ↩︎
- “Making public information accessible is not a favour granted by the government, but a right of citizens that enables them to monitor the government, exercise fundamental rights and create economic and cultural value. These ideas about the usefulness and necessity of openness are not sufficiently reflected in current Dutch practice.”
“The Netherlands has fallen behind countries that have recently adopted a freedom of information act or have made rapid progress in opening up government information for reuse, and has failed to learn from foreign experiences.” Parliamentary Papers II, 2011-2012, 33328 no. 3. ↩︎ - See, for example, the report of our last conference in Berlin. ↩︎