Jetten wants to keep VVD in cabinet after tax deal

D66 and CDA have agreed changes to the Belastingplan, the annual tax plan, with PRO and Volt, leaving out their coalition partner VVD. The deal was debated in the Tweede Kamer on Thursday and has put the three-party minority cabinet under strain.

Jetten said in the debate that he wants to continue with the current three parties. Carrying on without the VVD ministers is not an option for him. He has said before that a "restart" (doorstart) is needed, with talks on how the three parties can improve cooperation in cabinet and coalition and "relate better to the different majorities" found in the House.

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FVD

Political party · @fvdemocratie

“In campaign time the VVD talks about lower taxes and migration restrictions, but when it comes to governing it's always about the left. When will the VVD finally keep its election promises? Even now that D66 and CDA are teaming up with PRO, the VVD is not pulling the plug on the cabinet for now. Brekelmans dodges the questions from MilanSchenk in every possible way.”

Yeşilgöz said the agreement between D66, CDA, PRO and Volt is "bad for entrepreneurs, for the business climate, and (...) harmful to the Netherlands".

CDA leader Henri Bontenbal defended the plan in the House. "It is about taxing returns, not about taxing wealth," he said. He said fewer than 3% of savers hold very large assets and are asked to pay a little more, while the 97% with smaller savings come out ahead. He rejected the description of the plan as a "millionaires' tax".

Bontenbal said the amendment was originally too rough and hit entrepreneurs too hard, and that those parts were negotiated out or scaled back. What remains, he said, is a measure in which "the strongest shoulders carry the heaviest burdens", which he called Christian-democratic.

SGP MP Stoffer said the right-wing parties never got the same treatment. His party and JA21 met the prime minister and the finance minister in August, and talks with the finance minister continued afterwards. "We were well on our way," he said, and a deal could easily have been reached.

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JA21

@JuisteAntwoord

“There was a right-wing alternative. CDA and D66 chose the left. JA21 will vote against the tax plan as it now stands. Today Joost Eerdmans wants to know from Prime Minister Jetten what this choice means for the coalition. Is there still a cabinet at the end of the day?”