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Add as a favourite source on Google Add DutchNews as a favourite source on GoogleThe cabinet has begun talks with opposition parties to try to secure a majority for next month’s annual budget, with prime minister Rob Jetten setting a target of August 28 to secure a deal.

The three-party coalition of D66, VVD and CDA is 10 seats short of a majority in the lower house and holds less than one-third of the seats in the Senate.

Commentators say the choice boils down to two options: either do a deal with the main left-wing party Progressief Nederland (PRO) – which was formed by the merger of PvdA and GroenLinks – or try to forge a majority on the right with JA21. But neither route is straightforward.

PRO leader Jesse Klaver told NRC this week that he supported the cabinet’s plans to invest €2.1 billion extra in defence and €1 billion in education.

But his party wants to force the cabinet to scrap its proposed €6.5 billion cuts to social security and raise the money instead through higher taxes on wealth and corporations.

Klaver said he was prepared to drive a hard bargain on the welfare cuts even though they are not due to be introduced until next year’s budget. His stance is backed up by the trade union movement, which has called a national transport workers’ strike for September 9 to protest against the reforms.

“We won’t let people live with uncertainty about cuts in the future,” Klaver said. “These need to be taken off the table this autumn.

VVD reluctance

The right-wing liberal VVD says the cuts are non-negotiable because they are not prepared to increase borrowing or let the budget deficit exceed the European Union’s 3% limit.

The VVD has been reluctant to negotiate with PRO, which it explicitly ruled out as a coalition partner during last year’s general election campaign and in the negotiations to form the current cabinet at the start of this year.

But the path to a majority on the right is even more complicated. Support from PRO would give the cabinet a healthy majority in the lower house and a near majority in the Senate, where the government needs to find just two more votes from smaller parties.

JA21 has nine seats in the lower house – one fewer than the number needed for a majority – but only two senators. The party wants the cabinet to cut welfare even further and reduce taxes, including the so-called “freedom contribution” proposed by the Christian Democrats (CDA) to fund defence spending.

JA21: “Constructive”

Its leader, Joost Eerdmans, said a video call with Jetten and the two deputy prime ministers, Dilan Yesilgöz of the VVD and Bart van den Brink of the CDA, had been “good and constructive” and further discussions would follow, without disclosing further details.

Geert Wilders’ far-right PVV group and the even more extreme Forum voor Democratie (FVD), which have 25 seats between them, are refusing to lend the cabinet any support.

DNA, the splinter group of former PVV MPs led by Gidi Markuszower, is willing to co-operate with the cabinet, but has not been invited to the negotiating table.

Markuszower has warned he will demand a high price for his party’s support: “People at home are crying out for more money in their pocket, lower costs, more houses, more secuity and less asylum, but the cabinet is failing on all fronts.”

BBB shut out

The farmers’ party BBB has also been left off the guest list for this week’s talks, even though the party has 11 seats in the Senate.

The BBB has been unhappy with the government’s plans to impose more limits on the agriculture sector in order to cut nitrogen pollution, which has triggered a new wave of farmers’ protests over the summer.

The party has been riven by defections in both houses in the last year, particularly the upper house, where five BBB senators have left the party, including two who switched allegiance to its arch-nemesis, the progressive liberal party D66.

Heinen absent

Even more intriguing is the fact that finance minister Eelco Heinen, who will present the budget when parliament reconvenes on September 15, is not attending the first two days of negotiations.

Heinen excused himself on the basis that the focus of the talks was to secure “political commitment” rather than discuss the details of fiscal policy, but Klaver remarked: “I can’t remember a previous time when the finance minister wasn’t there for the budget process.”

The Christian parties ChristenUnie and SGP, as well as the pensioners’ party 50Plus, are also due to meet with ministers on Wednesday.

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