Next year's budget "almost ready," says Dutch PM Schoof

The Cabinet is “almost ready” with the budget for next year, Prime Minister Dick Schoof said after a Cabinet meeting in the Catshuis, the Prime Mister’s official residence in The Hague. The party leaders of the coalition parties will be updated on what the Cabinet has decided “in principle” on Wednesday.

The purpose of the meeting with the party leaders is “to consult, not to negotiate,” Schoof stressed. The budget is part of the elaboration of the PVV, VVD, NSC, and BBB’s coalition agreement concluded before the summer. That is why he thinks it is logical that the parties are asked “whether this is a good translation” before the entire package is sent to the Council of State for advice.

The Prime Minister is confident that the Cabinet will agree on the new budget before the week is out. The budget negotiations are “always complicated,” but he is working hard not to focus blindly on the budget and lose sight of the people behind the figures, he said before heading into the meeting on Wednesday morning.

Before Schoof became Prime Minister, he was a top civil servant for many years, including at the intelligence service AIVD and anti-terrorism coordinator NCTV. Despite those years at the top, Schoof believes that he can empathize with people who live in poverty, for example. “Even if you're in a top civil service, you talk to a lot of people from a lot of different levels,” he said.

In May, shortly after the new Prime Minister's name was announced, Schoof said that he wanted to make his Cabinet’s plans “in connection with society” and “with the people with and for whom it is done.” Since taking office, Schoof says he has tried to get in touch with citizens, “but you quickly get swallowed up, is of course the honest truth.”

Schoof hopes to go on many working visits in the coming period to “meet ordinary people,” he said. "And I'm still alive, you know. So I still meet ordinary people."