D66 leader Sigrid Kaag is preparing the minds for drastic reforms. At a congress of her party in Rotterdam, she says that ‘the chance of a recession is increasing’ and that ‘everyone will feel it’.
D66 is committed to working longer after retirement, says the D66 leader. And work longer hours. She also suggests higher taxes on pollution and on ‘money not earned through work’.
According to Kaag, the interventions are necessary to get the state treasury back in order. She points out that a lot of tax money has been used up in corona times by providing subsidies to companies and other institutions for lost income. This year, the government budgets again opened wide. This time to guide citizens and companies through the energy and inflation crisis.
According to Kaag, it’s enough now. “Unlike with corona, we cannot take on every setback. Even larger support packages inadvertently drive inflation further. And we don’t want to pass the bill to future generations, do we?”
Higher energy prices
Kaag also emphatically warns that the prices for gas and electricity may be permanently higher. “We will have to adapt to higher energy prices,” said the leader of the climate party.
Kaag is looking for the money to keep government finances healthy, especially among the middle incomes, companies and higher incomes. As far as she is concerned, lower incomes should be protected.
According to Kaag, who is also Minister of Finance, reforms are inevitable. “Our debt is still low at the moment, but that could quickly change if we get too large annual deficits and interest rates continue to rise. What we spend with one hand must first come in with the other. This is to prevent us from having to cut costs in a crisis situation. That is the lesson we have learned from the past.”
Undermining rule of law
In her speech, Kaag also lashed out at parties that undermine the rule of law. She did not mention any by name, but was indirectly referred to Forum for Democracy. During the General Political Reflections, the cabinet caused a sensation by standing up and leaving the debate room during Thierry Baudet’s contribution.
That happened after Baudet had said that Kaag had attended a school that had trained many spies. Kaag and many other ministers thought that was going too far and made that clear by resigning.
Not all parties appreciated that, they saw walking away as a sign of weakness. But Kaag maintains in her speech that this was a good thing. “The systematic undermining of justice, science, journalism and government should not be underestimated. Vigilance is required. Small steps also help. Literally stand up with the entire cabinet, deny anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists access to the country, sanction racist muck,” she summed up.
Migration
Just like at the VVD congress earlier on Saturday, Kaag touched on the migration crisis. This time she didn’t put deep lines in the sand. “We must be able to conduct a broad and realistic migration debate based on knowledge and facts and thereby detoxify the debate,” she said.
“The question we have to ask ourselves is what political choices we are willing to make. That’s not scary. That’s complex. It requires sensible policy and a clear course.”
The migration crisis is especially hard on coalition partner VVD. With long teeth, the VVD supporters agreed on Saturday to the compulsory law that obliges reluctant municipalities to receive asylum seekers anyway. In return, the inflow must be drastically reduced. Preferably right now via a temporary asylum stop. An annual inflow quota is also getting support from VVD members.
So far, such proposals could not count on much enthusiasm from D66, but at the VVD congress Rutte linked his name to the strict restriction of the influx of asylum seekers. He spoke of ‘personal commitment’.
According to insiders in The Hague, the cabinet intends to come up with the long-term plans for migration that had already been promised in December. The influx, which according to recent figures for next year will be around 50,000 asylum seekers, is part of this.