Social Agreement

On Thursday employers, employees and the government closed a social agreement. Part of the agreement is that the extra austerity package of 4.3 billion for 2014 is abandoned. In the fall it will be decided if next year additional cuts in the budget are necessary. Prime Minister Rutte Thursday disclosed this during a joint press conference. Besides abandoning the austerity package, the agreement includes the WW, dismissal, the disabled, flexible employment, pensions and state pension deficiency. Rutte still wants to bring the budget deficit back to 3 percent in 2014, and that can be done with further recovery of the economy. “Here comes this huge signal. This agreement is one of the most historic in the recent history of the Netherlands.” VVD, PvdA, ChristenUnie, SGP, CDA and 50Plus are, in general, happy about the agreement. However, PVV and D66 are not satisfied with the agreement. Wilders of PVV says, “This deal is only good for the job of Prime Minister Rutte.” Alexander Pechtold of D66 says, “This is a disappointing agreement and this raises three important questions: How many jobs does this cost? How much extra tax do the people have to pay? And how big a budget deficit will this agreement cause? I have the strong impression that there is no progress on these three main points by this agreement. I hope that the Prime Minister is not wishful thinking about economical growth.”