Road pricing declared too controversial for caretaker Cabinet, asylum distribution not

On Tuesday, the Tweede Kamer voted on a list of topics they deemed too controversial for the current Cabinet to handle in its caretaker capacity. The list includes several expected issues, including road pricing and adjusting the law for gender registration. But there are also a few notable absences, which the MPs considered too urgent to leave to the next Cabinet, including the asylum distribution law and binding study advice in higher education.

A majority of the Tweede Kamer, including coalition parties D66, CDA, and ChristenUnie, decided that the bill to fairly distribute asylum seekers among Dutch municipalities should not be considered controversial and should be addressed by the Tweede Kamer as soon as possible after the general political debate which typically follows the annual presentation of the Cabinet's proposed budget on the third Tuesday in September.

That greatly displeased several parties, including the VVD, BBB, PVV, Groep Van Haga, and JA21. They argued that a significant minority of the Tweede Kamer wanted to declare the bill controversial (63 of the 150 members). They believe a new House and Cabinet should handle this contentious law. The purpose of the distribution law is to ensure that asylum seekers are fairly distributed across all municipalities in the Netherlands. The debate is likely to be held in the last week of September.

A bill by Education Minister Robbert Dijkgraaf to relax the binding study advice in higher education is also not on the list of controversial topics. But, according to the newspaper AD, this is only because CDA parliamentarian Rene Peters accidentally voted for scrapping the topic from the list when he meant to vote against it. Peters plans to correct the mistake, which could mean the bill will be moved forward for the new Cabinet and parliament to handle.

Dijkgraaf’s bill aims to give first-year students more breathing room and less stress. Instead of first-year students having to complete an average of 45 of their 60 credits in the first year to continue studying, Dijkgraaf wants to lower the mandatory credits to 30. According to Dijkgraaf, relaxing the binding study advice (BSA) will ensure a better balance between study progress and students’ well-being in higher vocational education and university education. It will also give first-year students more time to get used to studying.

Topics that definitely did make it onto the too-controversial list include plans for road pricing - taxing road users per kilometer driven, a proposed change to the Transgender Act that will make it easier for people to change their genders in the registry of births, marriages, and deaths, and a change to the Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing Prevention Act that bans cash payments over 3,000 euros.

The Rutte IV Cabinet collapsed in July because they couldn’t come to an agreement on the asylum policy. New parliamentary elections will be held on November 22, after which the parties will negotiate to form a new Cabinet. The formation process could take months. All the topics on the too-controversial list will be postponed until after the new Cabinet takes office.

In the meantime, Rutte IV continues to rule in a caretaker capacity. That basically means that they have to keep the country running smoothly without making any major policy choices.