Voters pessimistic government's plans in spring budget update
After lengthy and difficult negotiations, the PVV, VVD, NSC, and BBB leaders jubilantly presented the spring update to the national budget last week. Voters, however, are much more pessimistic, RTL Nieuws found in a survey of 13,000 of its panel members. And that includes the groups that the Schoof I Cabinet is specifically trying to help.
Only 9 percent of Dutch people think the measures in the spring memorandum will really help the Netherlands move forward. 51 percent think little will change, and 32 percent believe the government’s plans will result in the Netherlands’ deterioration.
The Schoof I Cabinet announced measures to specifically help meet the needs of people with disabilities, social housing tenants, and working Dutch people, among others. But these groups, too, expect little from the government’s plans.
Social housing tenants should benefit from the government freezing social rents for the next two years. But despite that, only 10 percent expect their purchasing power to improve. 24 percent think they’ll be worse off despite the measure, because everything else is getting more expensive.
People who earn below average incomes also expect little personal benefit from the government’s plans. 7 percent think they’ll be better off, but 31 percent expect the opposite. “The energy costs are the problem, and those few tens of euros extra do not help,” one respondent said.
Workers are dreading the higher income tax, with around 40 percent expecting to have less money in their wallets in the coming years. And 43 percent of parents expect their situation to deteriorate, largely due to the postponement of almost free childcare and the limitation of the child-related budget benefit for people with higher salaries.
“The government has focused on support for specific groups, but the expectations about the performance of this coalition are now very negative among many voters,” RTL Nieuws pollster Gijs Rademaker said. “We see that this scepticism in public opinion far exceeds the good intentions of the government. People no longer believe in it.”
