Tax plan sends €1bn to working people after coalition clash
The Tweede Kamer passed the 2027 tax plan with an amendment sending €1bn to working people, and the cabinet has not fallen after the VVD voted against its own government's plan; VVD leader Dilan Yesilgöz calls the minority cabinet a failed experiment.
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Illustrative photo: Trougnouf (Benoit Brummer) / CC BY-SA 4.0.jpg){kind=link}
Prime minister Rob Jetten (D66) and deputy prime ministers Dilan Yesilgöz (VVD) and Bart van den Brink (CDA) have been in crisis talks since 11.30 on Friday about how to continue the coalition. The council of ministers (ministerraad) had not yet begun its weekly meeting.
Tensions peaked on Thursday, when D66 and CDA backed an amendment to the tax plan tabled by PRO and Volt, giving it a majority. The amendment sends €1bn to working people and is funded by raising more money from the wealthy. That evening the VVD voted against its own cabinet's plan.
“Just for the record, Schoof was prime minister with 3(!) parties without administrative experience. Jetten would deliver stability. I don't like being cynical, because this is seriously about our beautiful country, but he expects a constructive opposition, which he himself never gave.”
D66, PRO, CDA, ChristenUnie, DENK, the Party for the Animals, 50PLUS and Volt voted in favour.
Jetten and Yesilgöz declined to speak to the press before the talks. Asylum minister Van den Brink did. “We will have to keep working at this partnership.” He also criticised the VVD's stance on the tax plan: “Being angry does not mean you are right.”
“Save the Netherlands from this misery and quit. #nieuweverkiezingen #PVV”
The package also still has to pass the Eerste Kamer, the Senate, where there is no majority yet. If the same parties vote in favour as in the lower house, they hold 34 Senate votes and need at least four more seats. DENK has no senators, and support from the Party for the Animals in the Senate is uncertain.
After about seven hours of talks, the cabinet had not fallen. Jetten said at a press conference that the cabinet will defend the tax plan in the Eerste Kamer even though the VVD voted against it. “It took too long and it led to too much tension in the coalition,” he said, adding that he looks critically at his own role. He called the fundamental talks “not finished” and said things “must and can be done better”. The talks will continue over the weekend.
Yesilgöz has called for a “fundamental reset” of the minority cabinet.
After the talks, Yesilgöz said: “The cabinet as it is now, a minority cabinet, is a failed experiment.” She said D66 and CDA made a deal with the left behind the VVD's back, and that the VVD wants compensation for the damage she says the deal does to entrepreneurs and small and medium-sized businesses. She also wants agreements to stop the partners from looking to the left “just a bit too often”.
Yesilgöz said she does not want to send the country into elections. The three leaders resume their talks on Saturday at the Zwaluwenberg estate in Hilversum. Jetten has cancelled his Sunday trip to Sint Eustatius and the onward leg to Sint Maarten to continue the talks.
Source: Tweede Kamer
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