The Netherlands, explained in English · Saturday 14 November 2026Sat 14 Nov

Politics

Senate would block 2027 tax package on current backing

The parties that backed the 2027 tax package in the lower house hold 34 Senate votes, at least four short of what is needed. A debate is provisionally set for 7 December.

Ridderzaal on the Binnenhof square, The Hague
iIllustrative photo: Nanda Sluijsmans from Den Haag, Nederland / CC BY-SA 2.0

The 2027 tax package is at least four seats short of a majority in the Eerste Kamer, the Senate, if the parties that backed it in the lower house vote for it again. Senators are provisionally due to debate the package on Monday 7 December.

On Thursday evening D66, PRO, CDA, ChristenUnie, DENK, Partij voor de Dieren, 50PLUS and Volt voted in favour in the Tweede Kamer. Together these parties account for 34 votes in the Senate. DENK has no seats there, so its vote in the lower house adds nothing to that total.

Partij voor de Dieren (Party for the Animals) voted for the package in the Tweede Kamer, but its support in the Senate is uncertain. The senate group using that name consists of senators who split from the party. Ingrid Visseren-Hamakers is the one senator still backed by the parent party.

The Senate can only accept or reject the package as a whole. The upper house includes many single-member groups, among them senators who split from the BBB, and the independent senate group OPNL holds one seat.

See more of NLnow in Google: add it as a preferred source