It sounds vintage VVD. A considerably smaller government, full of bets on economic growth, somewhat less attention to climate. And care and social security? The party wants to intervene “firmly”.
On Friday evening, the VVD was the first political party to publish its draft election program for the House of Representatives elections on October 29 this year. Title: Stronger from the storm. A program that must be seen in the context of the ‘Storm’ in the ‘world’, wrote party leader Dilan Yesilgöz earlier this week in a blog post. The message: everything is about safety. That is why the party wants to invest, in order to protect ‘our way of life’.
The message is therefore that there is less money for other things. The VVD has committed itself to the higher NATO standard of 3.5 percent with a chamber majority to the parties. That means annual investments of billions of euros in Defense.
The question of what those other than are for which there is less money must be answered in the coming months. The 81 pages election program gives a first impression where the liberals want to find the money: cut back on officials, (even) less money to development cooperation.
The party also wants to tackle the increasing costs in healthcare and social security. For example, the VVD wants a smaller basic package, a higher deductible and no longer wants to have benefits reasons with the minimum wage. Moreover, the Dutch must retire later. Now the retirement age increases by eight months for each year that we live longer, but with regard to the VVD, that will be one-on-one.
The publication of the program has not been introduced with a presentation of the party leader. On Saturday in the Amsterdam Hotel Jakarta, Yesilgöz does answer questions from journalists. “The cards in the world have been shaken again,” she says. “We therefore have to make choices. We invest in defense and national security.”
Sunday closure
In addition, the party, at least in the book published on Friday, emphasizes themes that voters think of the party: Economy and Safety. The first three chapters are about investing in “radical” economic growth, working that should pay more and investments in safety. For example, the VVD wants to remove lower taxes for entrepreneurs, she wants to remove the Sunday closure from the law and for small employers to abolish wages in the second year in the event of illness.
How the choices turn out financially will be apparent at the beginning of October, if the VVD election program has been calculated by the Central Planning Bureau.
The program for the Lower House elections in 2023 started with an extensive chapter on migration. The VVD lost ten seats. That was after the Rutte IV cabinet had fallen on the VVD in July that year, because the liberals wanted stricter migration rules. And after the then new party leader Yesilgöz collaboration with the PVV no longer excluded, other than Mark Rutte.
Migration is only discussed in the second half of the program, in the chapter ‘Order of things for a free and safe Netherlands’. Incidentally, the chapter in 2025 is not less hard. “The asylum shelter for disadvantaged, nuisance and criminal asylum seekers is being cut back,” it says. Parts of the asylum bills of former PVV minister Marjolein Faber are also repeated in the program, such as abolishing a residence permit for an indefinite period.
However, the party seems to be implicitly before the Spreading Act, which still argued around the previous program. “As long as the inflow has not yet been reduced sufficiently […] is a fair distribution of asylum seekers about the country, “says the 2025 election program.
According to the VVD, climate must be seen in a context of independence in energy supply. The party wants to accelerate the construction of nuclear power plants, but also argues for more ‘realism’ in the field of climate policy. ‘Stronger from the storm’ does not make clear what that means, but usually such a call does not cause climate policy.
‘PVV-Light’
Yesilgöz and the VVD have been in a complicated parquet since the fall of the Schoof cabinet. Part of her supporters want her to exclude the PVV, not a part. She opted for exclusion, to the disappointment of the conservative wing. And shortly before the summer recess started, the other wing of the party showed that the ‘PVV-Light’ course of Yesilgöz is growing in the party.
She is a tone too hard, according to some of the VVD people. She would not behave premierwaard and alienate voters from herself-especially to spawn PVV voters, is the fear of concerned VVD people.
There were sharp statements from Yesilgöz in advance. She accused singer Douwe Bob of “Jewish hatred.” At the party congress in June she also led hard to a possible coalition partner: GroenLinks-PvdA. PvdA is said to have been extradited to the “extreme left-wing-radical, activist part of the supporters of GroenLinks”.
VVD, those VVD people, must talk about themes that voters trust them. Defense, economy, safety. That seems to try the party, at least with this election program. And is Yesilgöz also less bright after a short vacation? “That depends on it,” she says on Saturday afternoon. “If political parties take positions that I think they are harmful to our country, you will hear me.”
If members still see opportunities to improve the program, they can propose adjustments until mid -August. On 6 September the party will hold election congress and the program will be determined.