A consultation at the Ministry of Finance until after midnight has not yet led to a budget agreement. In fact, the coalition parties would have liked to achieve this, but they must continue to negotiate about next year’s billions distribution. Tricky points are mainly the long-term measures to dampen the decline in purchasing power and the question of whether something extra can be done this year.
“We need a little more time,” Prime Minister Mark Rutte said after the five-hour consultation. “It would have been nice if we had come to an agreement today, but with these kinds of negotiations you know it can take a little longer.”
Rutte did not want to say anything about the content. “Only when we are ready can we say something and that is with Prinsjesdag.”
Minister Wopke Hoekstra (Foreign Affairs) also said nothing about possible measures. He is confident that the coalition will come out, he emphasizes. “It was a fruitful evening.” According to Rutte, the atmosphere was also very good.
“It is true that the problems with both the shopping basket and the energy bill are enormous. At these prices and at this energy bill, it’s almost impossible to fight against that,” said Hoekstra.
Major problems
Both are tempering expectations of the measures being negotiated. ,,It will be a very solid package, but it cannot take away all the problems. That won’t work. These are very serious problems,” said Rutte. ,,I don’t want to create the illusion that all the problems have disappeared like this,” Hoekstra also warned.
Structural measures to dampen the decline in purchasing power are expensive. In order to find the billions, political choices have to be made, for example about whether this money should be obtained from the wealthy. VVD and CDA are not so keen on this, while ChristenUnie and D66 would like to levy more tax on wealth.
It is not clear when the consultations between the top of the cabinet and the party leaders of VVD, D66, CDA and ChristenUnie will continue. That could be this weekend or early next week. After an agreement between the four parties, the agreements must be ratified in an extra Council of Ministers. That will happen on Tuesday or Wednesday. The cabinet must send the Budget Memorandum to the Council of State on 31 August.
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