It sounds vintage VVD. A considerably smaller government, full of bets on economic growth, somewhat less attention to climate. And care and social security? The party wants to intervene “firmly”.
The VVD published late on Friday evening As the first political party its draft election program for the House of Representatives elections on October 29 this year. Title: Stronger from the storm. A program that must be seen in the context of the ‘storm’ in the ‘world’, wrote party leader Dilan Yesilgöz earlier this week In a blog post. The message: everything is about safety. That is why the party wants to invest, in order to protect ‘our way of life’.
The message is also: for other things is less money. The VVD has committed itself to the higher NATO standard of 3.5 percent with a chamber majority to the parties. And that means annual investments of tens of billions of euros in Defense. The reason was the retreating movements of US President Donald Trump in NATO context.
The question of what those other than are for which there is less money is to be answered in the coming months. The 81 -page election program of the Liberals gives a first impression where they want to find the money: (even more than the past cabinet) cut back on civil servants, (even) less money to development cooperation. The party also wants to intervene on the increasing costs in healthcare and social security, with, for example, a smaller basic package.
Sunday closure
In addition, the party, at least in the book that was published last night, emphasizes themes where it feels at home and that voters think the party fits: economy and safety. The first three chapters are about “radical” economic growth, working that has to pay more and investments in safety. For example, it argues for lower taxes for entrepreneurs, wants to remove Sunday closure from the law and wants to abolish wage payment in the event of illness to spare employers.
Exactly how the choices turn out to be financially, it will be apparent at the beginning of October, if the VVD election program has been calculated by the Central Planning Bureau.
The program for the Lower House elections in 2023 started with an extensive chapter on migration. The VVD lost ten seats. That was after the Rutte-IV cabinet had fallen on the VVD in July of that year, because the liberals wanted stricter migration rules. And after the then new party leader Dilan Yesilgöz did not exclude collaboration with the PVV, in contrast to her predecessor Mark Rutte.
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Migration will only be discussed in the latest half of the book in the latest program and is incorporated in the chapter ‘Order of things for a free and safe Netherlands’. Incidentally, the chapter in 2025 is not less hard. “The asylum shelter for disadvantaged, nuisance and criminal asylum seekers is being cut back.” There must be a ban on priority for status holders, at housing. Parts of the asylum bills of former PVV minister Marjolein Faber are also repeated in the program, such as abolishing an asylum permit for an indefinite period.
However, the party seems to be implicitly before the Spreading Act, where it argued around the previous program. “As long as the inflow has not been sufficiently reduced […] is a fair distribution of asylum seekers about the country, “says the 2025 election program.
According to the VVD, climate must be seen in a context of independence in energy supply. The party wants to accelerate the construction of nuclear power plants, but also argues for more ‘realism’ in the field of climate policy. It is not clear from the election program what that means, but usually such a call does not mean acceleration of climate policy.
‘PVV-Light’
The publication of the program was not introduced with a presentation of the party leader. What is the most important points of the election program for Dilan Yesilgöz is therefore still waiting. Saturday afternoon she is available for questions from journalists.
Yesilgöz and the VVD have been in a complicated parquet since the fall of the Schoof cabinet. Part of her supporters want her to exclude the PVV, not a part. She opted for exclusion, to the disappointment of the conservative wing. And shortly before the summer recess started, the other wing of the party showed that the ‘PVV-Light’ course of Yesilgöz is growing in the party.
She is a tone too hard, according to some of the VVD people. She would not behave premierwaard and voters alienated from herself. Especially to spawn PVV voters, is the fear of concerned VVD people.
There were sharp statements from Yesilgöz in advance. She called singer Douwe Bob a “Jewish hater.” At the party congress in June she also lashed out to another possible coalition partner: GroenLinks-PvdA. PvdA is said to have been extradited to the “extreme left-radical activist part of the supporters of GroenLinks”.
VVD, those VVD people, must talk about themes that voters trust them. Defense, economy, safety. That seems to try the party, at least with this election program.
If members still see opportunities to improve the program, they can propose adjustments until mid -August. On 6 September the party will hold election congress and the program will be determined.