CDA Quits Negotiations

The new proposal, which Jeroen Dijsselbloem sent to the opposition discussion partners, was not good enough for the CDA and they will not continue with the negotiations for an acceptable budget which can count on a majority in the Senate. Based on the new proposal, which was sent to the remaining discussion partners after three days discussion, the CDA group in the House has decided to quit the negotiations. CDA leader Sybrand Buma says that they want real changes and that the new proposal is only papering over the cracks. The new proposal is according to Buma a mixture of many different proposals. Within the CDA the feeling is that the government didn’t want to further negotiate with the christian Democrats because the demands of their party were too much. PvdA group leader Diederik Samsom - wikipedia Reaction PvdA PvdA leader Diederik Samsom says that there has been done a lot of effort to implement wishes of the opposition, as stated in their alternative plans, into the government plans for 2014. Unfortunately this seemed not to be enough for the CDA. Samsom is still very optimistic about the chances for a solution together with the opposition. PvdA minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem that it is disappointing that the CDA doesn’t want to continue the negotiations. “CDA has consistently been a hardliner and in fact during the negotiations wanted that the government would take over most of their alternative plans. Unfortunately, in a country with many different political parties you have to compromise and your own ideas can therefore not always be the solution during negotiations.” The minister of Finance is, like his political leader, also very optimistic about the chances to find a solution. He also said that he understood that the CDA quits the negotiations but on the other hand didn’t close the door totally, like PVV, SP, PvdD and recently 50Plus. Reaction VVD VVD group leader Halbe Zijlstra - wikipedia Leader of the VVD group in the House, Halbe Zijlstra, responded on the quitting of the CDA from the negotiations that ‘the insecurity in this country must stop’. “I think that it is most important to make decisions asap. Many people don’t know what to expect for their own situation. This is crying for clarity, preferably together with the opposition. The government has to come up with good policy. The government has reached a hand to the opposition and I hope that this will reach to a solution. If not then we must go on anyhow because we can’t wait forever.” Continuation So as of this moment the coalition partners will discuss with D66, GroenLinks, SGP and the ChristenUnie. SGP and ChristenUnie say that there are still possibilities for a solution. As far as they are concerned it is very important that the family, as society building block, will have less costs and can count on support of the government. With D66, the government had an extra discussion on Wednesday evening. Most probably they have been discussing about the reform s on the labor market and changes to the Social Agreement. However, this can not be seen in the proposal which was sent out yesterday.