Forming parties bicker in Parliament about budget: ‘A bit of scaremongering’ | Domestic

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The Hague – While the party leaders of the PVV, VVD, NSC and BBB started the formation in complete radio silence, a possible sore point for the bickering quartet became apparent a little further on in the House of Representatives. The parties appeared to have quite different views on the budgetary policy to be pursued.

“This is a bit of scaremongering,” PVV MP Van Dijck complained about VVD colleague Heinen on Tuesday in a debate on the Autumn Memorandum. He had just sounded the financial alarm. According to the VVD member, a ‘new reality’ is ‘desperately needed’, Heinen said, referring to gloomy predictions from De Nederlandsche Bank about the economy and the Central Planning Bureau about the budget deficit. “The budget policy is not going well,” said the VVD member. “We spend way too much money.”

Van Dijck thought that was a bit too heavy-handed. “You also have to tell the whole story and not just the frightening story,” he accused Heinen. Although the forming parties kept each other intact despite the brief clash between PVV and VVD, the discussion showed a difference between the four.

Financial soundness

Because VVD and NSC clearly attach great importance to financial soundness. “It seems as if we have much less control over expenditure than we would like to have,” NSC MP Van Vroonhoven noted. Her comment that the budget was ‘messy’ visibly irritated outgoing Minister Kaag (Finance). Van Vroonhoven agreed with her VVD colleague: “We will have to keep our fingers crossed.”

The PVV, in turn, had a number of expensive plans in its election manifesto to reduce the burden on citizens without financial support. Van Dijck said he did not have any financial ‘anchors’. And while VVD MP Heinen railed against the ‘tax hunger of the left’ when PvdA/GL proposed increasing the bank tax even further, Van Dijck stated that he would find ‘excellent cover’ for a lower energy tax.

Rules of the game

BBB in turn floated between PVV on the one hand and VVD and NSC on the other. MP Vermeer said he wanted to adhere to European rules regarding the budget deficit and debt. But at the same time he also said he was prepared to allow the national debt to ‘temporarily increase’: “If that is necessary to repair things that have gone wrong recently.” But he doesn’t want to ‘spend for the sake of spending’.

In addition, it was striking that Van Dijck did not criticize D66 Minister Kaag in this debate, as he has consistently done in recent years. It was an echo of his party leader Wilders, who sweetly approached the media a little further away before and after the formation talks. He even approved of a question about the apology for the history of slavery, which the PVV would like to withdraw. But he, like his fellow party leaders, did not want to say anything about the talks afterwards: “We are just going to tell you that we are very much looking forward to it.”

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