Housing, the influx of refugees and youth care. Three themes that the Association of Netherlands Municipalities (VNG) believes that the outgoing cabinet should continue.
“As VNG, we have said, do not lock the country,” says Eric van Oosterhout, mayor of the municipality of Emmen and also secretary and treasurer at the VNG. “The flow of refugees really will not stop if Prime Minister Mark Rutte stops.” If this file is not continued, “it will continue to rumble as it is now,” he warns. “While good plans must now be made. Those asylum seekers must be spread over all municipalities.”
The cabinet fell on Friday because the four parties (VVD, CDA, D66 and ChristenUnie) could not agree on measures to limit the influx of asylum seekers. As VNG, the 342 municipalities in the Netherlands, together with the provinces and water boards, have sent a letter to the Senate and the House of Representatives. In the letter they ask parliament to prevent the Netherlands from coming to a standstill. Today the House of Representatives is debating the resignation of the cabinet.
“Take a theme such as youth care. That has been going on for years and we have all just made plans. That is typically a plan that you do not stop until after the elections,” says Van Oosterhout. And he thinks the same about housing. “I think a lot of houses need to be built.”
A caretaker cabinet implements current policy. It is therefore unlikely that new policy will be introduced, and certainly not on sensitive points. “The whole discussion about agriculture and nitrogen, I would be surprised if this cabinet started talking about it cheerfully. Let’s not exaggerate, this will not come to a month. But do the math: the cabinet has now fallen and everyone is going on vacation. There will be elections in November, then they will talk about a new cabinet.”
Sharon Dijksma, chairman of the VNG, believes that ‘the fall of the cabinet can only be summed up in one word: rash’. “The list of major social challenges that require decisive action is long. Municipalities will continue to take responsibility in the interest of our residents. We were discussing the necessary preconditions for this with the cabinet. Despite the outgoing status of this government with priority.”