“Community spirit.” “A strong society.” Words by D66 faction leader Rob Jetten, uttered during the election campaign, that sounded like music to the ears of CDA faction leader Henri Bontenbal. “Just think about it,” Bontenbal said last Thursday during the parliamentary debate on the election results: “A D66 member who starts talking about a sense of community. Apparently there is more overlap between us than I always thought.”
To break the deadlock in the formation, advised scout Wouter Koolmees (D66) CDA and D66 will continue to discuss five themes that concern voters and often returned in the campaign: housing, nitrogen, economy, security and migration. The mutual atmosphere between D66 and CDA – together 44 seats – seemed to be different. Bontenbal to start those conversations “with a positive view” led by Sybrand Buma (CDA) and Hans Wijers (D66).
A day later, the informant Hans Wijers appointed by D66 resigned, after publications of NRC. The forming parties will therefore have to look for peace this week, after a turbulent last week. What are the chances that they will find it through the content? An overview of the overlap and differences in the plans of D66 and CDA.
MigrationUnanimous on the distribution law
The talks will start on Monday with the migration file. To attract floating voters to the right, Jetten changed his tone on migration in recent months. For example, he spoke several times about asylum seekers who cause nuisance, “aso’s” who ruin it for others, and he said in an interview with it A.D: “The migration system is broken.” With his more critical attitude, Jetten seems to be moving in the direction of the CDA.
They also agree on retaining the dispersal law, which requires status holders to be spread across municipalities. D66 calls the European migration pact, which will be introduced in June 2026, an “important step towards a fair, humane and working asylum system in Europe”, the CDA believes it is “the basis of the national approach to asylum”. This pact includes an agreement to distribute incoming asylum seekers among European countries.
The CDA wants, referring to the advice of the State Commission on Demographic Developmentsan average net migration of 40,000 to 60,000 migrants per year. D66 does not mention a number but also supports the advice of the state committee.
Yet there are also differences. The CDA is in favor of the measures in the ’emergency asylum measures law’ of former minister Faber (PVV), which is now before the Senate, and in favor of criminalizing illegality. D66 doesn’t like either of those. Both parties share the frustration that during parliamentary debates they were dismissed by the VVD, among others, as parties that did not want to do anything about migration.
Housing shortageA rapid reduction of the mortgage interest deduction?
If there is one subject where the plans of D66 and CDA are similar, it is the approach to the housing shortage. This now amounts to around 400,000 houses and will increase further in the coming years. „We have to get to work,” the CDA writes in its election manifesto. “If we continue to do what we have been doing, too few houses will be added in the coming years,” writes D66. Both parties want to redevelop empty buildings, add extra floors to existing houses, split houses and add a “neighborhood”, “neighborhood” or some “separate houses”. Additional homes for the elderly and lifelong homes must be created, but the homes for the elderly will not return: the two reject the current government’s plan.
D66 and CDA can also shake hands on the tax side of home ownership. Take the mortgage interest deduction. D66 wants to phase out this in twelve years, CDA wants to take longer (thirty years). It leads to house prices rising more slowly and to higher costs for homeowners. It is unclear whether the parties also agree on a problem related to interest deduction: the ‘thirty-year term’. Chaos threatens from 2031, because homeowners will have to prove that they are still entitled to mortgage interest deduction. Abandoning that term solves the problem, but costs almost one billion euros per year. Both parties have nothing about this problem in their program.
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SafetyEuropean armed forces or not
The two parties also basically agree on international security. Billions must be allocated to defense in the coming years to achieve the new NATO standard of 3.5 percent of gross domestic product. The amount will rise to more than 19 billion euros in 2035. D66 and CDA think exactly the same about that standard; that must be achieved. In order to pay for these extra expenses, they want to make significant cuts in healthcare expenditure. For D66 it is 7.3 billion, for the CDA it is 5.6 billion. They are both also in favor of a form of voluntary military service.
There are also differences. D66, as befits the party, looks directly at Europe. The party wants Ukraine to join the European Union quickly, a European armed force in the long term and European cooperation in, for example, purchasing ammunition and training the armed forces. The CDA doesn’t want any of that. Bontenbal’s party does advocate scaling up the European defense industry.
NitrogenThe livestock population must shrink, but by how much?
Then the nitrogen lock. Farmers, companies and traffic emit too much, causing fewer housing projects to get off the ground and making expansion of the overcrowded power grid more difficult. D66 and CDA agree on the solution: emissions must be reduced. As a result, the livestock of both parties is shrinking, as shown by the calculation of their election programs by the Central Planning Bureau (CPB). But D66 reduces more nitrogen emissions than the CDA. And for D66, the livestock population is also shrinking faster, although the party no longer talks about halving the livestock population.
D66 wants to stick to the nitrogen targets for 2030: in that year, too much nitrogen will be allowed to precipitate in only half of the nature reserves, with the most vulnerable areas being given priority. The CDA, which traditionally has many farmers as voters, focuses on achieving the same goals, but five years later. This difference of opinion led to a major argument between CDA and D66 in the Rutte IV cabinet, and a cabinet crisis.
The approach is also different. D66 wants to set a maximum for the number of cows per hectare and tighten the emission standards for stables. The CDA does not look at the number of animals per hectare, but at the nitrogen emissions per company, for which it wants to agree standards. In addition, D66 advocates buffer zones of 0.5 to 5 kilometers around Natura 2000 areas protected by European legislation, where extra strict rules apply to farming activities. CDA proposes significantly smaller zones, up to 250 meters. D66 also wants extra nature, while the CDA wants to ‘evaluate’ the Natura 2000 areas.
EconomyMore taxes, or sustainability subsidies?
Climate measures play an important role when it comes to the economy. Polluting industry must become greener. As with nitrogen, D66’s climate plans are also more ambitious than those of the CDA. Both parties want to reduce emissions, but D66 aims for a climate-neutral Netherlands by 2040, while the CDA aims for 2050. In addition to subsidies, D66 also opts for more rules and taxes, such as a plastic levy, while the CDA mainly advocates subsidies and agreements (and less for levies) to green polluting industries. In June, for example, CDA appeared for the abolition of CO2-levy on industry, D66 reacted angrily. The CPB warns that D66’s stricter rules could cause companies to leave, although it also expects that the polluting industry in particular could shrink and develop more sustainable alternatives.
There are also similarities. Both D66 and CDA invest in rail and roads. D66 wants to invest 26.5 billion euros in, for example, the Lelylijn (railway line between the Randstad and the north), Merwedelijn (tram line between Utrecht and Nieuwegein) and the IJmeer connection (between Almere and Amsterdam).
According to the report by scout Koolmees, some other themes do not necessarily have to be examined during the conversations between CDA and D66. Take healthcare and social security. These are “implicitly” in his report, Koolmees said on Thursday. “It is inevitable that choices have to be made in this regard as well.” He pointed to the higher expenditure on defense, for example. “That money has to be found. My suggestion is to make choices about that as well. Not in detail, but providing guidance.”
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