Mark Rutte put two candies in his mouth. It was late afternoon on Thursday, the second day of the General Political Reflections in the House of Representatives, and the prime minister had been answering questions from group chairmen for about five hours. And whether that would be with his mouth full, with SP member Lilian Marijnissen facing him – it didn’t seem to matter much to him. Whether the cabinet had control over labor migration? ‘Well,’ said Rutte, with his arms folded, ‘too few Poles are coming. Because things are going too well in Poland itself.”
One opinion poll about Rutte and his fourth cabinet turns out even worse than the other and on Budget Day he already said that he would not “beg” for confidence. And that’s what he showed – in the most important debate of the year, about the national budget: Rutte looked relaxed, made jokes. Laurens Dassen van Volt said that a humble attitude on the part of the prime minister would be appropriate, if you consider how little trust people still had in the government, but that advice was clearly not for Rutte.
But once in a while he was irritated. When Jesse Klaver of GroenLinks accused him of debating tricks, for example. In the morning’s debate, Rutte had said that he had ‘compromised’ with Klaver about a ‘ceiling’ for the energy bill and Klaver thought that ‘a little technique, pressing your opponent against you’. “While we have not agreed anything at all.”
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Irritation at JA21
GroenLinks and the PvdA had previously thought up the idea of such a ceiling together, and the two parties felt at the end of last week, when the cabinet took over, that they received little recognition for it. Finance Minister Sigrid Kaag then tried to make amends, the party leaders were allowed to visit, and in the debate in the House of Representatives Rutte invited Klaver and PvdA member Attje Kuiken to discuss it further with the coalition parties. What irritated Joost Eerdmans of JA21: was he not allowed to participate? “I get the impression that the negotiations have already started.”
But GroenLinks and PvdA, which are necessary for a majority in the Senate, did not want to end up in a kind of ‘constructive opposition’ role so easily. And so Klaver started talking about Rutte’s ‘trick’. “I didn’t like that very much,” said Rutte. “It’s not like I say: ‘We are abandoning the people.’” Klaver thought that Rutte should promise: we will not abandon a family this winter. „Whatever it takes”, said Klaver Rutte.
Rutte only wanted to do that if Klaver meant it: the cabinet would not allow households to be cut off from gas and light. But not “whatever it takes” when it came to “compensating” the entire energy bill. Rutte found that “a compromise” with Klaver – which he looked pleased with.
Don’t raise expectations
In the debate it became clear that Rutte IV had presented a ‘half-finished plan’ with the ‘ceiling’, in the words of SP member Marijnissen. There was still so much unclear about that idea that much of the debate was centered on discussing details. Exactly how far did the cabinet want to go with co-payment and for which groups not?
Sylvana Simons (BIJ1), Caroline van der Plas (BBB) and independent MP Pieter Omtzigt came up with stories about people with serious disorders who had to charge devices, needed heat around them, and therefore never, as the cabinet intends, could reduce their energy consumption.
The group leaders of the coalition parties VVD, D66, CDA and ChristenUnie also had many questions about it. What if you had spent a lot of money on a heat pump and therefore ran out of gas, but therefore used a lot of electricity? And when did a real plan to help small business owners emerge? Rutte wanted to be “very precise” and not to “raise expectations”, which mainly meant that he did not want to promise anything – the plans themselves still have to be worked out further. “I don’t know if it will work. We will do our best, but there are no guarantees.”
‘Ukraine will prevail’
Rutte kept the words whatever it takes repeat and used many other English words throughout the day as well. He spoke casually about “housing first” when it came to care, and about the “determination” with which Ukraine is regaining ground. He said „that eventually Ukraine will prevail”.
Rutte also said that after his visit to the UN General Assembly in New York on Friday and Saturday, he plans to “look for stages”: he wants to make the Dutch “more aware” of what is happening in Ukraine. the game is on. As other European leaders have done much before. Whether that will be in a TV speech or a lecture, he didn’t say. What he wanted to achieve, he said: „That Ukraine does not headlines disappears”.
Rutte would not wait for the votes on the motions, on the national budget, on Thursday evening – by then he would already be on his way to the US.