Please let us keep the peace this time, says MP Aukje de Vries of coalition party VVD in the debate this Wednesday about the Spring Memorandum. She warns her colleagues that the financial plans of this cabinet should not become a hole cheese, due to ‘uncovered checks’ or with’ free beer ‘motions’. She calls on “no irresponsible things” to do with elections approaching.
The cabinet may have fallen, for the financial calendar of the cabinet and the House of Representatives, nothing changes. In August, outgoing finance Minister Eelco Heinen (VVD) still has to make a new budget for 2026. And this Wednesday, the House of Representatives will deal with an update of the budget for 2025 and a preview for the budgets in the 2026 and beyond.
And that while the campaign has started. An attractive moment for parties to get points for their voters. After the previous cabinet trap in 2023, the House of Representatives had to deal with the budget of 2024, just before elections. The room pulled the wallet to support purchasing power with billions. Among other things, the minimum wage went up and the gasoline prices down.
What influence does the government have on the government’s financial plans? Is there already an opposition to see that tries to use the possibilities that this offers?
Night negotiation
The Spring Memorandum came about before the fall of the cabinet during a long nightly negotiation at the Ministry of Finance. The coalition withdrew money for municipalities, reversed the proposed VAT increase on media, culture and sport and closed a gap on the asylum budget. It also increased the rent allowance once and announced it to freeze the rents.
Already on the day of the cabinet trap, the spring compromise changed. The rental freezing, heavily criticized by the Council of State, was canceled by outgoing minister Mona Keijzer (BBB). A few days later, outgoing finance Minister Eelco Heinen of the VVD followed with the caning of the one -off increase in the housing allowance, called ‘the shopping bonus’ by Geert Wilders.
Heinen needed that money, he wrote, because with the scrapping of the rental freezing, more money had to be spent on housing allowances. If rents do rise, more people are entitled to a housing allowance.
Icy
The remaining three coalition parties hold each other on the further subjects. Henk Vermeer of BBB calls the spring memorandum “a careful structure” where “stones can just be pulled out”. The outline agreement remains leading, says Aukje de Vries of the VVD.
Only that is not enough. This cabinet had no majority in the Senate. But due to the departure of the PVV, the coalition has to look at the opposition for majorities in Béíde rooms, even though the VVD wants to keep peace.
And that is very critical. Tom van der Lee of GroenLinks-PvdA sees “no meaningful progress” in the field of housing, nitrogen or climate. With this Spring Memorandum “we don’t get anywhere,” says Hans Vijlbrief (D66). Pieter Grinwis (ChristenUnie) “Instant Solutions for things that give a warm feeling, but turn out ice -cold in the long term. ”
Education
The broadest shared annoyance is the extra -booked educational cuts due to the coalition, while the coalition already has substantial cutbacks on education. The House in particular fell on scrapping the so -called educational opportunity scheme, intended to support vulnerable students. With the money, classes could be made smaller and teaching assistants could be paid.
Because of the departure of the PVV from the coalition, GroenLinks-PvdA is the only party that can help the cabinet in both rooms on his own a majority. Van der Lee van GroenLinks-PvdA proposes not only to reverse the cutbacks on the educational opportunity scheme, but to cancel the full cutbacks on education of 1.3 billion euros. He wants to pay that in particular taxes on business.
With a large right -wing majority in the Lower House, his proposal has little chance. Van der Lee does produce a sharp collision with VVD member Aukje de Vries, who reproaches him to immerse companies in uncertainty. Van der Lee mentions that “the well-known VVD-Riedel”, in which “the lobby of the business community is talked unquestionably”.
A financially less radical proposal to reverse educational cuts comes from D66, CDA, ChristenUnie, SGP and JA21. Some of these parties also concluded a deal with the coalition in September to partly reverse educational cuts. When they saw in the Spring Memorandum, they were disappointed that the cabinet chose to cut extra on education a few months later. Their problem is only: because the PVV is no longer in the cabinet, their seats are not enough to help the remaining coalition to a majority in the Lower House.
The five focus on scrapping a smaller part of the educational cuts, including the educational opportunity scheme. They want to pay that with higher cartel fines and by the maximum of the state pension age for three years. If people continue to work longer, the government also needs to pay less AOW.
Other parties are also critical of this financing, but the Coalition parties NSC and VVD seem to be more agile to talk about this. GroenLinks-PvdA also sees opportunities for the Dutch Association, if the five parties can come up with a different financing plan. The opposition parties now say they are looking for alternative coverage. The parties still have just before the summer holidays, then the votes are.