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Coalition talks move on to policy, but divisions
emerge already
March 25,
2024
https://www.dutchnews.nl/2024/03/coalition-talks-move-on-to-policy-but-divisions-emerge-already/
Talks on
policy between the four parties hoping to form a right-wing government in the
Netherlands will start in earnest on Monday morning, but divisions have already
emerged between them.
VVD leader
Dilan Yesilgöz said on Sunday that she plans to take a “tough” line in the
negotiations and that having “clear financial limits” is of crucial importance
to her party.
“It is a
fact that we must make major savings,” Yesilgöz told current affairs show WNL
op Zondag. “And for the VVD is it important that we don’t just randomly
increase taxes and put up costs, but that we look at where can we make
reductions,” she said.
Civil
servants estimated earlier that the government needs to make savings of €17
billion in the coming years to keep the budget deficit within the EU 3% norm.
However,
Geert Wilders, leader of the far-right PVV, hit back on social media, saying no
facts have yet been established.
The
negotiations still have to start, he said. “Nothing is not a fact,” Wilders
wrote. “But the PVV does want lower costs for the people.”
After
putting some of his more extreme ideas about closing mosques and banning the
Koran on ice, Wilders has said he is not prepared to make any more concessions
and that he also plans to take a “very tough” line in the talks.
The
negotiations are entering the next phase under the leadership of CDA stalwart
Richard van Zwol, who chaired a commission warning in January that migration
needs curbing, and Elbert Dijkgraaf, a professor of economics who sat in
parliament for the orthodox Christian party SGP until 2018.
They have
been given eight weeks to come up with agreements on 10 key themes, although
these may be expanded to 12 with the inclusion of education and climate as
separate topics.
The first
two issues up for discussion on Monday are housing and public safety.
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