PRO willing to support budget if gov't scraps social security cuts, tax the wealthy

“Despite everything,” Jesse Klaver is willing to discuss next year’s budget with the minority coalition. But then the Cabinet must clearly opt for cooperation with the left, take planned cuts to social security off the table, and make the wealthiest pay more tax. Speaking at a party gathering in the Railway Museum in Utrecht, the PRO party leader criticized the “mess” the Cabinet had made of the budget negotiations.

“We saw a coalition without direction. We saw endless negotiations - not with the opposition, but among the coalition parties themselves,” the left-wing politician said. D66, CDA, and VVD opted for a minority coalition during the government formation process because the VVD absolutely refused to work with PRO. The “logical consequence” of this is a state of “permanent coalition formation,” Klaver said. “And that is extremely worrying.”

According to the PRO leader, the time has come for the Cabinet to make a choice. “Choose fair sharing with the support of the trade unions and PRO, or choose austerity with the support of the right,” he said.

“One of the topics he wishes to discuss with the coalition is a reform of the WIA disability insurance scheme. “We are willing to discuss how to ensure fewer people become disabled for work,” he explained after his speech. However, the left-wing politician is only prepared to do so if the Cabinet abandons its plan to cut social security spending. Klaver has not yet revealed what specific changes to the WIA he envisions.

If the Cabinet does not meet him halfway, Klaver threatens to vote against the Ministry of Social Affairs’ budget and the tax plan. “Right up until the very last day we have to vote, I say: come and talk to us,” he said. “But on the day the vote takes place, you could well see things go wrong. And that is not something you want for the Netherlands.”

With his speech, Klaver was already looking ahead to Budget Day on Tuesday and the subsequent General Political Deliberations - the parliamentary debate on the National Budget. There is much to discuss during that two-day marathon debate; the coalition lacks a majority in both parliament and the Senate. Attempts to secure support from opposition parties on both the left and the right have so far proved fruitless.