What does NRC think | Visible cow trade around the Spring Memorandum confirms the distrust of a coalition in the campaign position

A brilliant piece of campaign policy. For example, the Double Tone around the spring memorandum, negotiated this week, can best be described with a cynical look. After a marathon session of 25 hours of negotiations (read: heroism), the tattled group chairmen came from the Ministry of Finance on Wednesday morning. All with presents in their basket for their own supporters. Extra money for defense for the VVD, farmers, rail and roads for BBB, a ‘shopping bonus’ (actually a higher housing allowance) for the PVV and something with livelihood for NSC. Billions were sparked to secure all this beauty. Whoever pays the bill for this remained unclear for days. To say the least, an undesirable situation.

The annual budget cycle benefits par excellence from verifiability, transparency and an iron rhythm. Unlike political collisions about ideology, the budget actually has an effect on the economic position of the country. Admitting to the wishes of one, often leads to a deterioration in the position of the other. Free money does not exist, and there are long -term and European agreements that limit the income and expenditure of the government. A budget deficit is not an opinion.

That this government lights up his hand with it, is evident from the fact that until last week the Senate still had to give approval to a number of departmental budgets for the four -month budget year. With a lot of art and flying work, almost all worked out, also because some groups in the Senate simply did not dare to vote away a current budget. Chaos trumps in the financial-economic field.

The fact that the negotiations for the spring memorandum were under high voltage this week was completely due to the coalition itself. Since the Budget Memorandum of last year, many billions of changes have been made to the plans. Partly due to changed political insights (the VAT on culture and media, for example), partly by setbacks (asylum) and partly due to a changed reality (defense). Great common denominator in the parliamentary handling of those subjects was the ease with which a decision was reversed on the one hand and the bill was passed on on the other. The sum of all that opportunism was the Gordian button with which the spring memorandum negotiations were stuck.

So in mind it is great that the four parties have managed to solve their self -created problem. But that’s a sham. The really big decisions (climate, nitrogen) have again been moved on. The shortage also increases more than the Central Planning Bureau had calculated because not spent billions are not in ‘the balance’, but are still spent in later years (the notorious ‘cash slide’).

Even more problematic than that is the way in which negotiations are. The four parties chose to only take the table with Minister Eelco Heinen (Finance, VVD) and to keep other ministers outside the conversations. The result was that they only heard on Thursday morning whether they received money or returned. It led to confusion and disappointment, not only in the ministerial team, but also with, for example, provinces who were promised to see a Lelyline evaporate in favor of a Lower Saxon Line and a few N roads.

Whoever zooms on the plans, sees that they do hurt. The income tax increases, just like the wealth tax, secondary education receives less money for helping underprivileged children, unemployment benefits are shortened by six months, free childcare, 600 million disappears from the climate fund and with the cheese slicer all departments must partly take care of the rising costs for inflation.

The extraparlementary experiment of this coalition runs into its own limits, or is already through it. The willingly and knowingly keeping professional ministers, who with the support of their civil service do know how cuts or investments turn out, leads to ad-hoc politics that often do more harm than good. Visible cow trade without wanting to reveal the real consequences. Prime Minister Schoof could not even emphasize the unity with blissful words afterwards. Further than: « The cabinet has just not fallen » he doesn’t seem to come.

What remains is the image of a coalition that seems to be permanently in the campaign position. Operating its own supporters is placed above the national interest. This Spring Memorandum is also a model of solidified distrust: pack what you can pack before things collapse. As long as that threat is above every negotiation, PVV, VVD, NSC and BBB will continue to fight for electorally attractive crumbs. The country does not benefit from that.

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