Skip to main content
Home

Main navigation

  • Top stories
  • Health
  • Crime
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Tech
  • Culture
  • Sports
  • Weird
  • 1-1-2
Image
480px-Lodewijk_Asscher_2013-1-480x575
- Credit: Lodewijk Asscher (Picture: rijksoverheid.nl)
Politics
Labour
Lodewijk Asscher
middle class
PvdA
Social Affairs
socialism
VVD
wealth gap
Friday, September 25, 2015 - 10:56
Share this:
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • linkedin
  • whatsapp
  • reddit

Deputy PM attacks PM’s party over middle class, wealth gap

Deputy Prime Minister Lodewijk Asscher hit out at his party’s coalition partner for “stabbing the middle class in the back.” Asscher made his statements at Thursday night’s annual address to the Willem Drees Lecture foundation in Den Haag. The Labour party member serves jointly as the Minister of Social Affairs, and accuses the conservative VVD party of increasing the wealth gap by not doing enough to maintain a middle class. He lamented that there are too many uncertainties and vulnerabilities now that 35 percent of all employed people are either working as freelancers or on non-permanent contracts. This particularly hits younger generations, he added. “Joe Sixpack, Otto Normalverbraucher and our own Jan Modaal have it tough,” he said, referring to the English, German and Dutch phrases for the “Average Joe.” He added that the PvdA, the Labour party of the Netherlands, traditionally steps up to fight for the lower classes, according to a copy of the speech provided by the Volkskrant. “The middle class society is a society built on our core values: solidarity, emancipation and equal opportunities. A society where there are not bizarrely large differences, and where hard work and doing your best will be rewarded,” he said, stressing the importance of safety nets when people falter. The point is to “create possibilities and opportunities for people to improve their lives, to move forward. To pick them up just enough so that they may climb up to the middle class.” Asscher also suggested that the VVD wants to implement cuts to mandatory insurance for involuntary unemployment benefits and disability payments, and make it harder for employees to band together under a collective bargaining agreement. He suggested that in the end, the public may soon have to decide between a free-market “Valhalla,” or a nation where “we progress together by sharing risks and creating opportunities for everyone.” The foundation where Asscher spoke aims to continue the principles of Dr. Willem Drees. The foundation promotes the “fair and democratic distribution of knowledge, wealth and power in the Netherlands and abroad,” according to its website.

Follow us:

Latest stories

  • Dutch students less interested in German studies; Spanish gaining popularity
  • Women's prison guard suspected of sexual abuse
  • Mondriaan painting sold for $315,000 in New York
  • Netherlands teaming up with Germany, Denmark for more offshore wind farms
  • Satanic pedophile network tales cost conspiracy theorists €215,000 in damages
  • Rutte's lack of transparency a pattern, opposition says in deleted texts debate

Top stories

  • Storm warning intensified: Code orange alert issued for three Dutch provinces
  • Cabinet cutting €2.2 billion from climate, development funds to push into Defense: report
  • PM Rutte's deleted texts can't be recovered; Parliamentary debate today
  • Thunderstorms in Netherlands on Thursday: Code Yellow
  • More substantial minimum wage increase set for next year: Report
  • Labor strike to shut The Hague public transportation on June 2

© 2012-2022, NL Times, All rights reserved.

Footer menu

  • Privacy
  • Contact
  • Partner content