It took five months in 2021 to phase out the lockdown, less than two months this time. The Netherlands was still in a strict lockdown last month, in two weeks the cabinet wants to abolish practically all measures.
This characterizes the optimistic atmosphere at the Binnenhof. It’s no surprise that things are happening so fast now. Minister Ernst Kuipers (Public Health, D66) has emphasized ‘social interests’ since his first press conference. This week, Kuipers put extra emphasis on this, in a letter about a ‘new approach’ to the corona crisis. In it he formulated two new goals: ‘social and economic continuity/vitality’ and ‘accessibility of the entire healthcare chain for everyone’.
What is also striking: the unprecedented speed with which Kuipers informs the House of Representatives about the next steps in corona policy. For almost two years now, the House has been complaining that it feels sidelined: the cabinet has repeatedly announced measures at press conferences, without informing the House in advance. Kuipers does things differently: he already sent the new package of measures to the House on Thursday, five days before the next corona press conference. For the first time, MPs are given the opportunity to criticize the policy before anything has been formally decided. The parliamentary debate on the measures is still after the conference, on Wednesday.
For two years, the OMT was the all-determining adviser to the cabinet, Prime Minister Mark Rutte (VVD) called the advice “sacred”. That role seems to be becoming less prominent. While the OMT has often been the architect of the package of measures and the cabinet only made minor adjustments, the roles were reversed on Friday: the OMT met on a package that the cabinet had already sent to the House. OMT member Marc Bonten even told BNR this week that it “will not take long” before the OMT in its current form is dissolved.
Room more critical
Heavy, restrictive measures against the virus will seem less obvious in the near future, also because the House of Representatives is becoming more critical and takes more initiative. On Thursday, a majority of the political groups voted in favor of a motion by the SGP and independent MP Pieter Omtzigt calling on the cabinet to withdraw the 2G bill. The government wanted to keep this proposal, in which only vaccinated or cured people have access to, for example, catering and events, for new revival of the virus later this year.
Future of the 3G corona pass
More and more parties in the House are of the opinion that it is not appropriate in the new phase of the pandemic to allow measures that restrict citizens’ fundamental rights to hang above the market. In the corona debate next Wednesday, the future of the 3G corona pass will probably also be discussed. The cabinet wants to abolish it soon, but keep it in the toolbox.
In addition to the corona pass, Kuipers also wants to keep almost all other measures from the corona law on hand. To what extent is there really a new approach to the corona crisis? That’s the question.
The relaxation is not based on a different weighing of interests, but because the epidemiological situation allows it – Omikron turns out to be a lot less pathogenic than previously estimated and the booster vaccinations work well. Kuipers says he no longer wants to “exclude risks”, but the cabinet also regularly took risks in the past year. The fact that hospitals overflowed under Delta was due to the fact that the rules were completely relaxed in September and the outbreak could then continue to grow for weeks because the cabinet did not want to intervene too hard.
If stricter measures prove necessary again, it is not certain that the House will also hear them before the press conference, just like this week. The fact that Kuipers sent his plans to the House so early was mainly due to the fact that relaxing measures takes more time than imposing restrictions, because the House has to agree to this in advance. If, as usual, Kuipers had not sent the letter to the House until Tuesday, it would take another week before the relaxation could take effect. This is now possible on February 18.
The question therefore remains: what will Kuipers do differently if a new variant emerges and the pressure on hospitals increases again?
A version of this article also appeared in NRC Handelsblad on 12 February 2022
A version of this article also appeared in NRC in the morning of February 12, 2022