Justice Min. rejects calls for further budget hike

The Cabinet is proposing to invest an additional 250 million euros into the Security and Justice budget. In the spring they will evaluate if more is needed. For the time being that is all the Ministry is getting extra. Minister Ard van der Steur of Security and Justice said this in the debate on his ministry's budget in the Tweede Kamer, lower house of parliament, on Thursday, the Telegraaf reports. He will not fight for a bigger increase. Opposition party PVV already announced that it will vote against the budget. The party wants more than the 250 million euros extra for the budget. Van der Steur pointed out that not even the extra 250 million euros will go into the budget if the opposition parties refuse to give their support. The Cabinet needs the opposition parties' support to get the budget through the Eerste Kamer, Senate, because the coalition does not have a majority in the Senate. If the budget does not pass Senate approval, the Ministry will have to make do with last year's budget. This means that there will be less money for security, not more, the Minister explained. Other opposition parties also have their criticism on the budget, but have not stated whether or not they will support it yet.