The coalition agreement may have been a turd (my own words after its presentation), the cabinet that has been in power for more than six months is doing quite well. The thought formed when reading the letter to parliament from the Minister of Social Affairs, Karien van Gennip, about the reform of the labor market. More on that later. There are more and more examples of good policy and of ministers growing in their role. Let’s name a few things that are going well.
Minister Sigrid Kaag of Finance, a blank slate when it comes to public finances, is growing in her role: she is the one who looks after the treasury. The coalition agreement (to which she, of course, co-wrote as D66 leader) is, when it comes to money, absolutely irresponsible, both for this cabinet term and for the longer term. And the Chambers kept (and continue to) whine about even more government spending. But sometime this spring she drew a line in the sand. Spend more? Fine, but cut back elsewhere, she wrote in the (still wasteful) Spring Memorandum. ‘In principle, therefore, coverage will have to be provided for new policy with consequences for the budget.’ Kaag takes her part. On a roll.
Minister Christianne van der Wal of Nature and Nitrogen is doing what should have happened decades earlier: tackling the nitrogen crisis. If in ten years we are going to write the story of how nature has recovered, and how we have switched from a bankrupt system of industrial agriculture to an agriculture that is economically sound and fully contributes to natural values, we will designate the spring of 2022 as the turning point. Then Minister Van der Wal threw the bat into the (overcrowded) henhouse. Today’s peasant actions will be remembered as the noisy death rattle of a dying mode of production. On a roll.
The story of Schiphol and Minister Mark Harbers of Infrastructure and Water Management is very similar to that of Van der Wal. This is a historical turning point. For decades, governments allowed Schiphol to grow unbridled, with all the negative external effects that this entails. Until spring 2022 Harbers forced Schiphol to downsize. Now that this bullet has passed through the church, new growth in the future has become unthinkable; further contraction is likely (and necessary). Once again: good job.
We are also at a tipping point in taxation. ‘For years,’ said State Secretary Van Rij of Fiscal Affairs in April, ‘assets have been taxed in the wrong way’. He is now working on the design of a capital gains tax, which classifies the return on capital as income and will levy tax on it. This is not only fairer, but also makes it possible to lower taxes on work. On a roll.
Finally, Minister Karien van Gennip of Social Affairs. She also intervenes in a crisis that has festered for far too long: the one on the labor market. Flex becomes less flex; definitely less tight. Like her colleagues, she is working on ‘major maintenance’ and ‘reform’, all in line with the advice of the Borstlap committee. She too: having a good time.
No, not everything the government does has been done. Do not get me started. But anyone who reads the newspapers sometimes gets the impression that everything is doom and gloom and that the cabinet is not doing anything. If you have that impression: that image is too one-sided. Things are also going well.