Coalition parties agree to next year's budget after 10-hour long meeting

After almost ten hours of consultation, the four coalition parties, PVV, VVD, NSC, and BBB, have agreed to the government’s budget. “I have established that the government’s proposals can really count on the four supporting parties of this government,” said Prime Minister Dick Schoof.

“It is simply a complicated subject. That is why it took so long. It is really about something. You have to take the time for that,” said the Prime Minister in a short statement after the long consultation at the Ministry of Finance.

The budget will be formally approved by the Council of Ministers on Friday, after which it can be sent to the Council of State for advice. It must be sent by August 31 at the latest. It will then be made public on Budget Day, the third Tuesday of September.

The top of the Cabinet and the four leaders of the coalition parties also spoke to each other for hours on Wednesday evening. “Yesterday, we received some information. Today, we are still asking for some feedback. And that’s it,” said NSC leader Pieter Omtzigt on Thursday afternoon, shortly before the start of the meeting.

VVD leader Dilan Yeşilgöz also did not give the impression that the meeting would be an all-nighter. She indicated that she was satisfied with the budget presented by the Schoof team. “I thought they were great plans,” Yeşilgöz said.

It is not known why the consultation ultimately took so long. “We discussed many topics with each other, and we undoubtedly looked to see if we could adjust anything,” said Schoof when asked whether the coalition parties had made any additional demands.

The coalition parties want, among other things, tax relief for middle incomes. There are also financial setbacks, such as the tax on capital gains (box 3). “Which, for example, already amounts to more than 7 billion euros this year,” said Omtzigt. Early retirement was also reportedly a topic of discussion.

The Cabinet had already “largely” reached an agreement on the budget on Thursday morning. “We as a Cabinet have put the puzzle together,” the Prime Minister said at the time. There are still a few things that we need to “tweak a bit,” he added.

During the formation of the Cabinet, consultations between the four party leaders often took much longer than expected. Party leaders Geert Wilders (PVV), Yeşilgöz (VVD), Omtzigt (NSC), and Caroline van der Plas (BBB) needed almost six months to reach their main lines agreement.

They agreed to form an extra-parliamentary Cabinet with a greater distance between the Cabinet and parliament. But some consultation is necessary because the party leaders want the coalition agreement to be done justice, Minister Eelco Heinen of Finance said earlier in the day.