Why do you want to participate?

I've had a strong interest in the second world war, and with that our freedom, from a very young age. This year we're set to celebrate 80 years of freedom, but people seem to forget the price we and the rest of Europe paid. The times we live in are tense and I believe it's more important that ever to remind people freedom isn't self-evident and that we could lose our own freedom if we aren't aware of mistakes made in the past.

What does freedom mean to you?

It's mainly about having security for me. I don't have to worry about bombs raining overhead whilst going to school, or about living under active threat of subjugation in regards to external politics. But I also have the right to express my thoughts without worry of persecution regarding the internal aspect of things.

What are the biggest challenges?

I believe this is a twofold challenge. On the one hand, there are a lot of things happening out of our control. The Dutch military believes that an active war is possible within 5 years. If this is really the case, our freedom would be jeopardized and young people all around Europe would be called up to defend our freedom. A trying challenge, where the final decision will not lie with us, but we can try to exert some influence nonetheless. On the other hand, I believe that there is also a challenge that lies within ourselves: knowledge. A large amount of people seem to have no idea of the sacrifices made in not only the Netherlands, not only Europe, but around the globe to achieve our freedom 80 years ago. This hasn't stopped wars from happening all around the world since then, but I believe that through educating ourselves about the past, we can try to avoid a similar global conflict in the future.

Do you have a message?

"You, Zeeland, are our own country, We will not tolerate a foreign hand, Who would reign over us, We are faithful to our freedom." D.A. Poldermans, 1919