Has the Jetten minority cabinet found a way to govern after more than a hundred days? Or will it remain a struggle with the opposition, the polder and between the three coalition parties themselves?
This week, the coalition of D66, VVD and CDA (66 seats) suddenly seemed to have achieved an unexpected success. The Foreign Trade budget would still have been saved and could pass the Senate, thanks to support from the largest opposition party PRO. In exchange, D66 minister Sjoerd Sjoerdsma will release an additional 380 million euros for development cooperation this year. By bringing forward money from later years and other pots – something that the VVD was always against.
Was this perhaps a harbinger of more frequent collaboration on links, with PRO?
In reality, the VVD would have agreed to the extra money through a “secret” deal with D66, it was discovered Fidelity. D66 then ceased its opposition to a VVD wish to criminalize glorifying terrorism. PRO MP Suzanne Kröger, who concluded the deal with the coalition for foreign trade, said she was “shocked”. She arranged extra money, but her deal may result in a law that her party knew nothing about. Deputy Prime Minister Dilan Yesilgöz (VVD) insisted at the weekly press conference on Friday that it would be a “parallel” deal – separate from Sjoerdsma’s budget.
There had already been a fuss in The Hague about the messy start of Sjoerdsma’s budget in the House of Representatives: the reason why a deal with PRO was now necessary.
That budget won a majority in March with support from right-wing parties such as JA21. They supported this because of a budget cut in the aid organization UNRWA for Palestinian refugees. But a few days after the votes, Minister Sjoerdsma appeared to maintain support for UNRWA at 19 million euros.
One budget, double agreements, and just about everyone angry.
It shows the struggle of the Jetten cabinet: it has to make agreements with the opposition for majorities, but also regularly find internal agreement. And then it can happen that anyone who makes a deal with this minority cabinet is handed another deal unsolicited and unknowingly, as this agreement shows.
Ultimatum unions
This week, the House of Representatives debated another headache: the ultimatum from the unions. They are threatening strikes because of the government’s cutback plans (6.5 billion euros) on social security. Once again there was friction within the minority coalition, with the VVD in particular taking up space.
Minister Hans Vijlbrief of Social Affairs (D66) has already promised to “take the cuts to the AOW off the table” and not to continue with the cuts to the WIA and WW “in the proposed form”. The unions may suggest where this money could be collected, for example from wealthy people. But VVD Finance Minister Eelco Heinen and VVD faction leader Ruben Brekelmans appear to be clinging to cuts in social security.
The debate on Thursday therefore focused mainly on that one question: should the 6.5 billion euros in cuts to social security be raised in the same budget? It stands in the way of further negotiations with unions and employers.
D66 and CDA previously hinted that there are “no taboos” and that the money can also be found partly in other budgets. Prime Minister Jetten used similar words in the debate. But VVD member Ingrid Michon-Derkzen started again about the “financial frameworks” that she is concerned about. Although she also said: “If there is a financial challenge, we will then see how we tackle it.”
A mini step in the right direction, the Christian Union concluded in the debate. But is it enough to get the unions back to the table? And coalition hassles can be expected again in the next step.
Minister Hans Vijlbrief was unable to talk to the unions and employers, but this week he made a tour of opposition parties PRO, JA21, ChristenUnie and SGP. Can they perhaps help him in his quest for reforms of the labor market and social security? There, another struggle became clear: The cabinet has still not decided whether it will collaborate with JA21 or PRO for financial agreements – a question that the three coalition parties were also unable to resolve during the formation.
Vijlbrief dreams of “an agreement about the middle”. With left and right. “That’s where I come from,” he said laughing after his conversation with JA21. But JA21 leader Joost Eerdmans thinks Vijlbrief has to “choose”, he said. “If you look at the differences between JA21 and PRO, it is enormous.”
Ideological differences
What makes the choice of a collaboration partner difficult for this dossier in particular: there are major ideological differences in how social security is viewed. In other words: Can you encourage people in the WW and WIA to get back to work? For example, by cutting back on some benefits and at the same time giving people more education? VVD and JA21 think so. And “we don’t have to play hide and seek for that,” said Member of Parliament Ingrid Michon-Derkzen (VVD) in the debate on Thursday. Klaver, the unions and Jimmy Dijk (SP) believe that everyone who does not work does so involuntarily. There is no point in offering incentives with discounts, it will only get people into trouble.
In order to reach an agreement with trade unions and employers for reforms in the labor market and social security, cooperative steps will have to be taken.
The most important demand of the unions is that the pain suffered in order to spend more on defense is shared equally. And that wealthy and wealthy people also contribute, instead of only the disabled, the sick, pensioners and the unemployed. The VVD in particular will have to make a move for this. And, as the development cooperation deal showed, the VVD does not do that for free.
